Renegade
by D.L.Summitt
Summary: When a mystrious vagabond enters Jump City, so does his past. A young teenager with a deadly seceret is jumped by three savage thugs. What is the sigificance of this young man and the Titans? Read to find out.
1. Default Chapter

**Renegade**

**Chapter 1**

It was a calm peaceful night in Jump City. It was a strong contrast to the peril they were in earlier that day of which the Titan's narrowly rescued them from. But as the evening of cities go, the shops were closing, and workers were returning to their families. In the matter of a few hours a bright city was reduced to a collection of dark buildings, and soon there were only two things that illuminated Jump City. One was the gentle glow of the Moon, and the other was a single room on top of Titan's Tower.

Within the tower Cyborg and Beast Boy were playing a game of X Race 3000, they were playing the best twenty-four out of twenty-five upon Beast Boy's request. The rest of the tower was dark as a cemetery, especially (expessily) Raven's room. Starfire and Raven were fast alseep within their respective rooms, and Robin, was recollecting on the day's events.

"Let's see, that's Cinderblock's attack on the construction site, Mumbo's seige on the magic shop, and Dr. Light's rampage on the electronics store, looking for components for some "machine" he was building. Luckily, we stopped him in time. Hmm...busy day, it's nice to finally get some rest." Then suddenly, like a rush of wind, something returned to him. Something...a little out of place. "That man I saw when we were fighting Dr. Light; he didn't run like the others. He..just stood there. He's either really brave, really stupid, or he's up to something."

Once one cog moved within Robin's brain it was nigh-impossible to stop. As every bit of training returned to him, the ward of the Dark Knight was beginning to put things together.

"Something is just not right about him. Now, what can I remember about that guy?" Hmmmm,Trenchcoat, Dark hair, and a cold emotionless face. He was mumbling something to himself. Now what was it?

"You thought you'd be safe here with the Titans didn't you, Renegade? But even now you are being hunted just like the rest of your kind. You cost us quite a lot,  
but don't worry; I'll have my revenge on you. I'll take care of y-"

"Hey Robin, something up?" Cyborg inquired. He and Beast Boy finished their game, and you really don't need a narrator to tell you who was the victor. "I was just walking to my room when I heard you talking to yourself. Is everything okay?"

Robin was surprised; he didn't realize that he was thinking out loud. "I'm fine Cy, sorry to have bothered you."

"It's okay man. I was just checkin' with you." Cyborg exited out of Robin's room and walked sleepily in the direction of his own.

Robin stayed up for a little while longer trying to unravel the secret to this latest and incredibly cryptic enigma.

"It's nothing," Robin finally convinced himself. "I just need to get some sleep."  
The rest of the night at the tower was fairly peaceful. But peace, was not with all of Jump City's inhabitants

"I got careless," remarked a young man. "They shouldn't have found me here. I thought they would leave me alone since I was so close to Titans Tower; I guess I was wrong. These guys are getting bolder."

He was standing in a dark forbidding alley over three thugs, apparently unconscious; each had a pistol clasped within their hand. The Teen himself looked about fifteen/sixteen and had messy brown hair. He wore a gray T-shirt and faded jeans.

"They were easy enough, but these are Vincent's men. And if they're here, he can't be far behind."

The young teenager lifted up his hand, and suddenly, a red jacket that was laying on the pavement to his left, began practically floating in the air making it's way to the one who beckoned it. With the jacket still floating he put both his arms trough and made his way out of the alley.

He began running. He didn't know where to run but he knew it had to be far. And as he ran, He eventually saw a man in the middle of the sidewalk; he was the dark figure that haunted Robin's mind.

"Hello, Ark." Said the dark figure

"Vincent, I knew someday you'd catch up with me. So what are you here to do? Kill me, or take me in to the others." 

"I'm surprised, Ark," remarked the dark figure revealed as Vincent. "I expected more...resistance"

"I won't disappoint you; I will fight. But I know that your power is ahead of mine so it would be no use. But like I said, I will fight. So, what's it going to be?"

"Neither, I had orders to watch you, nothing more. And I dare not go against orders, unlike some others I know. But do not get me wrong, if I could, I would snap your worthless neck right here and now."

"That's comforting, so if you aren't going to kill me why did you reveal yourself."

"Another time, another place, Renegade. For now I must apologize for the behavior of my men; they were far out of line for attacking you, and will be punished."

"Thank you, I guess. Will you be sending anymore?"

"You misunderstand; their actions have nothing to do with me, Renegade. They were acting on their own rebellious accord."

"I'll take your word on that…for now."

"I believe we have said enough now, Ark, and I really must be leaving. You know there are more important Renegade's to attend to. So I bid you goodbye."

Suddenly, and without warning, the dark figure disappeared without a trace. In under a second, what one could easily make out as a figure of a man became nothing; he just...disappeared.

Ark knew full well what had happened, but he was slightly surprised all the same. He began to breathe in sighs of relief and put some of his troubles to rest when a thought entered his mind. This thought was not of his own and echoed Vincent's dark unforgiving voice. "I'll be watching you," the thought echoed. He knew what he was trying to do. He was trying to scare him, frighten him. Well, it won't happen.  
It did happen. As he meditated on this one simple thought, sheer terror was released upon his mind.

"Nagga, Sura, Vaggen, Horton." Mumbled a tired and disgruntled Beast Boy as he slowly made his way to where a great force beckoned him. That force was hunger, and that place was the kitchen. He walked in a swaggering manner that made it look like every step he took, he might fall down. When in actuality, it was every three. But even through the bumps and bruises he suffered; he was determined. He was focused. He was extremely hungry. He was-

"Wait. What's that sound coming from Raven's room? Is she still up?" wondered Beast Boy. He put his head close to her door and quickly made out her mantra," Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos."

"Strange, why is she up meditating this late at night?" Beast Boy decided to find out.

"Hey uh, Rae? It's late. Why are you up? Is something wrong?  
"Go. Away." Raven said, it was evident to a fool that she didn't want to be bothered. Unfortunately, Beast Boy was apparently, at least at the time, less than a fool.

"But-" He tried again.

"GO! AWAY!" Just at that moment, a bolt of black energy hit the changeling right in the head, forcing him from Raven's door to the hallway wall.

"Fine! Be like that!" Beast Boy quipped, and then added under his breath, "Not like I have enough bruises."

Raven didn't answer and continued her meditation. She was extremely focused, and seemed nervous and shocked.

"Okay now, where was I? Find my center, ready and focus..." She sat there, hovering in the air and searching for answers.  
"I'll be watching you..."  
"What could he mean by that?" Vincent's psyonic message apparently made it's way to a sleeping Raven disturbing and prompting her to find what was happening in Jump City.

"Now what do I have so far? Two energies, strangely natural, not at all like my own. One stronger than the other. Wait...I'm getting something.

"A young man is running, strange, an energy is around his legs, making them move...faster than normal. He is being chased by three men with pistols. Running. Running. Into an alley. Things are getting clearer now, yes."

"Finally! You put up quite a run, but it ends here," boasted one of the thugs.

"Ark, come now why don't you come back with us? You know you were one of the more gifted students at the 'Organization'," remarked another.

"I'm not coming back! And I'll kill you if I have to!" shouted the mysterious young man.

The young man threw off his red jacket and formed a defensive formation.

"NOW!"

The thugs each fired their weapons once, and, almost like a reflex, the mysterious teen put his left arm up with spread out fingers. The same energy that was moving his legs now made a wall in front of him sending the bullets every which way. The thugs put their hands over their heads for fear that the bullet's ricochet might hit them. The young man, knowing they would not, summoned more energy around his arm and thrust it forward, sending a wave of this strange energy toward the frightened thugs. It sent them flying backward onto their backs and upon the pavement, each of them knocked out cold. He said something; she couldn't really hear it. He then used the 'natural' energy to lift his jacket and put it on.

"That's it," Raven admitted. "That's all I can see. I wonder what it means, or who he is. Whatever's happening, I fear it will not leave Jump City for some time..."


	2. Chapter 2

**Renegade**

**Chapter 2:**

The following morning was a repeat of the last night for the city. At 10 a.m., nobody was in peril, and there was no immediate threat that the Titans needed to handle. The Super-hero teen team was assembled around the kitchen eating their breakfasts. Robin was eating scrambled eggs with bacon, Cyborg was having chicken and waffles, Raven was having a simple drink of herbal tea, Beast boy was eating tofu with some toast, and Starfire...was eating... something, the Titans weren't sure. It looked like some sort of jelly chicken or buttered weasel they weren't sure. All they really knew was that if she offered some, they would definitely turn it down.

"Do you guys remember when we fought Dr. Light last night?" asked Robin; he was going to try to see if the others knew the dark figure.

"DO I! I'm still googly eyed because of the blinding thingy!" shouted Beast Boy.

"Actually," added Raven, "that was when I hit you last night."

"Oh yea- HEY! What was with you last night? I was just trying to help!" said the green Titan.

"Well, I see I wasn't the only one who didn't get enough sleep last night," Raven retorted.

"That's not nice! I-"

"Beast Boy, Raven stop it! Now, as I was saying..." Robin took a bite of his eggs and then started again "Did any of you notice anything strange?"

"Not really, I was kinda too focused on the battle. Speaking of which, Beast Boy you _do_ remember the butt whooping I gave you last night, don't you?"

"Yes, I do okay! First Raven, now you, what is this National Annoy Beast Boy Day?"

"Actually," said Cy with a smart voice, "National Annoy Beast Boy Day is on the fourth; today is National Bug Beast Boy Day."

"GUYS!" Robin said again. He was getting really annoyed that every time he tried to solve something an argument arose. "Now, to the point. I noticed a mysterious looking man, someone who didn't run. He seemed preoccupied, and he was way too suspicious to not be up to something."

"Now that you mention it, Yeah I know who you're talking about. He had a trench coat on right?" said Cyborg.

"Yeah, that's the one!" said Robin.

Starfire however didn't share the sentiments of Cyborg. "I am distressed to admit, but I know not of this man. Is he a friend or a foe?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out, but I'm kinda leaning toward foe." replied Robin.

"I didn't see him, but last night I felt the presence of two energies. It was strange though, the energy seemed to emit from the people themselves, not from another source, such as magic." Raven said.

"Maybe they were carrying a cellular generator," suggested Cyborg.

"A what?" asked a confused Beast Boy.

The others either didn't listen or didn't care.

"I doubt it," said Robin. "Something like that would carry enough radiation to send your sensors into a frenzy whether you were asleep or not. Anyway, could you tell me more about these 'energies'? I'm curious on whether or not there's a connection."

"The first one I felt was the strongest I discovered it when I intercepted a message he was sending. The more I think about it the more I believe it was directed toward the second. It was less powerful. Both had their guard up to any kind of probing, but the second did put his guard down for a moment. Apparently, he is a teenager about our age and has 'someone' chasing after him for leaving some type of 'organization'. He seems to be able to use his energy to accelerate his physical power as well as make it cardinal to make force fields and waves. That's all I can gather so far," said Raven.

"How powerful is the second?" asked Robin.

"It's hard to tell, but if I could say…they echo my own," admitted Raven.

"Okay, so we got a really powerful cryptic, scary energy dude who can talk to people's minds and another dude who is as powerful as Raven and being chased by some other dudes. THIS CANNOT BE GOOD!"

"Perhaps this second power can become our friend?" asked Starfire.

"Maybe, Star, but we still don't know what they're doing here, much less if they're friendly. But I'd be willing to bet that the dark figure me and Cy saw might have something to do with this first energy. He was saying something about finding a renegade or something, and if I could guess, I'd say that this dark figure is looking for the young man," said Robin

"So what are we going to do about it?" asked Cyborg.

"We can't do anything now; just wait. We don't even have enough information to have a lead," said Robin.

"Well, I hope our wait's not long," said Cyborg.

Ark didn't get any sleep that night; he was too worried that someone (Vincent) might find him. He was used to sleepless nights spent looking out for himself. It was, after all, what he had been doing for the last 2 years. What a roll irony gave him. He left this mysterious organization to avoid becoming a killer. In return, he led a new life of killing in self-defense. He was also used to the terms Vagabond, Deserter and Renegade. He preferred them to what he would have been: a butcher, murderer, killer. His thoughts were all over that night, deliberating whether to run or stay. Jump City was the safest place he could have gone, and they still found him. There was only one better place, Titans Tower. Should he risk others lives just to make him safe? Sure the Titans were competent, but his adversaries were more so and much more numerous than the Titans. His conversation with himself soon turned from what would be safe to…would they be safe. He looked through his mind. Two professors of differing philosophies could not debate as he. After a long time, he made a decision; he would go to the Titans.


	3. Chapter 3

**Renegade **

**Chapter 3**

It was now midday and still there was nothing major going on in Jump City. Apparently the infrastructure of villains was greatly hurt the last day. Three super-villains taken down in one day, there was no way anyone was going to try anything, not when the Titans were at the top of their game.

Ark stood now on Titans Isle; it was one of the hardest journeys he had to make, and although there were no cardinal enemies to speak of, on the inside of the Renegade teen, a great battle was being waged. His inner demons fought his inner angels, and Ark didn't know who was who much less what side to take. Right and wrong, Black and White, merged to form a bleak gray blotch within his mind. Going to the Titans became as equally wrong and equally right as staying alone. With every slow steady step he took the battle only got louder and louder; he wondered how someone who has been alone for so long could argue with himself. He was alone, and he couldn't even agree with himself.

There must be some outside force at work. Someone must be planting these thoughts in his head. But there wasn't; the only person who had that type of power was Vincent. And he was busying enough watching him, watching him suffer. He was having too much fun to interfere. Besides, either choice fits perfectly into his master's plan. So there would be no use to influence him either way.

And so, he walked, making his way slowly to the ominous figure that was Titans Tower.

The Titans were busy. Too busy to take a look through their window infested tower to see a lone boy walking ever so slowly to their tower. Beast Boy challenged Cyborg to yet another game. Cyborg proceeded to destroy him once again. Robin and Raven were still discussing the dark figure and the two energies; Starfire was with them making ignorant comments on the subject. Robin explained those simple misunderstandings, he never minds doing so, but Raven simply ignored her. They walked over to the window to get a good view. Robin noticed an interesting figure walking towards the tower. It looked like a young man, with messy brown hair, faded jeans, and a jacket worn over a gray shirt. Robin nudged Raven and pointed in the direction of Ark. Raven recognized him as from the vision she had. Her eyes widened she looked directly at him and said, "It's Him."

Ark was at the front door at this time. It was tall, very tall. It looked as if it was built to let in a giant or something bigger. He opened the door and let himself in. Inside was a big room with stairs that led to a security door. There were benches along the sides of the wall. He supposed by the overall look of the place that it was a orientation room or a place to hold press conferences. He made his way up the stairs and towards the security door. It had a sign on it that said "No Tours Today." There was a speaker to the sign. There was a button next to it, supposedly to contact them. He reached his figure over to the button, but before he could the door opened. There stood the Titans all waiting for him. Instead of sending him away like some fan who wanted to catch a glimpse of his heroes, they greeted him, suspiciously, but they still greeted him.

"Hello," Robin stretched out his hand. "Robin."

"Hello," Ark took his hand, "I don't suppose you have a room?" 

"This isn't a hotel. If you need one we can direct-" Robin was cut off by Raven who whispered in his ear, "Let him stay, trust me he's not hostile, and he'll properly give us a lead."

Robin complied with her but still didn't let off easy. "What are you doing here?"

"That. That is a long story, but for now all you need to know for now is that I am in danger." replied Ark.

"Dude! You're the dude aren't you? The dude with the moving and, the force field and the WHOOSH!" shouted an excited Beast Boy.

"Yeah you do match the description," Said Cyborg, he stared at him for a few moments. "I don't detect any cellular radiation, so I guess Raven was right."

"You are! You are the second energy that friend Raven talked about! Come, tell us of who perils you, and of this organization so that we might help you!" exclaimed a very happy Starfire.

"How did you." Ark started but Robin cut him off.

"Another long story, we'll explain later. So, it looks like you can stay for a while" Robin said looking at Raven. " At least, for now.

"So, got a name, kid?" asked Cyborg.

"Yeah. Force"

Vincent was there, watching them the entire time. Hiding in the shadow-less shadows he observed all that there was to see. He left the island knowing all he needed, and made his report to his master. He flipped open his cell-phone began his conversation.

"Is it as we expected?" asked a voice.

"Yes sir, he has gone to the Titans," replied Vincent.

"Excellent, now we have a legitimate reason for exterminating the Titans. They are, after all harboring one of my Renegades."

"Yes sir, the organization will have its revenge, and eliminate any potential threat."

"With the Titan's added to my predicted complications I will need to call our contact."

"Are you sure he can do the job?"

"He's done it before he can do it again."

"When do I strike?"

"Bide your time, give him enough time to become comfortable, lazy; all the while building your strength. When we are ready we will contact you."

"Yes sir, I hear and obey. Vincent, out."

Vincent turned off his cell phone and flipped it down. He had his orders. And he will obey them.


	4. Chapter 4

**Renegade **

**Chapter 4**

It was now about noon and still there was no trouble in the town. The town's people liked the change of plans; after all, would you like to be in danger every day? As I said before, the sun was shinning the birds were singing and.dingdingdingdingding what's that? A bank robbery it seems. The events will reach the Titans soon and they will make very short work of them.

The Titans were about to question the man that went by Force. Raven knew differently and asked Cyborg to do a search on an Ark Magnus. Robin was about to start the interrogation when then alarm went off. He rushed to the large supercomputer/T.V. and began tapping at the keyboard to locate the problem.

Robin spoke his famous catchphrase, "Titans Trouble!"

"What is wrong?" asked an inquisitive Starfire.

"Some thugs found a bank. The people need our help!"

"Well let's get going already!" Cyborg shouted.

"Right, Titans Go!" That was another of his famous words.

The Titans began running out to meat the problem; they all rushed out the door. Before Robin left the room he addressed Force, "You coming?"

"Me?" asked the Renegade.

"You're not staying here so come on!"

Robin began running knowing Force right behind him.

They went to their respective areas; Beast Boy, Raven, and Starfire ran up to the roof to take to the skies while Cyborg and Robin went to their vehicles, Cyborg to the T-Car, Robin to his bike. Force decided to run up to the roof with Star, Rea and Beast Boy and took to the skies as well. The natural energy surrounded him as it lifted him up towards the clouds. Up in the air Beast Boy in eagle mode gave him a shocked stare. "You can fly?" He asked. The others kept to themselves and focused on the task at hand.

They all arrived at the same time and were right next to the door to the "First Bank of Jump City." Inside screams of panic could be heard, as well as a few gunshots, most likely to show that the robbers were serious about getting their money. They all rushed in trough the glass doors into the bank. The thieves were trying to get the bank tellers to cooperate.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you, CRIME DOESN'T PAY!" Robin exclaimed. Forced wondered how such a cool guy could say such corny lines.

"The Titans! Get 'em!" shouted the lead thug. They each had a big gun, and their leader carried an automatic; the rest carried modified rifles. 

"Tatatatatatat." The leader fired his automatic rifle at Robin. He quickly pulled his titanium cape around him causing the bullets to ricochet off of him and all over the place.

Beast Boy became a ram and flung himself into one of the thugs. A hard hit, but the thug's body was harder. 

Starfire fired a few blots at another of the bank robbers; he jumped from side to side evading many of them until finally, after causing much damage, one finally made contact. It definitely winded him but he was still up. They were tougher than they looked.

The same story happened to Raven. She picked up an ATM machine using her dark powers and hurled it at one of her enemies. It was spewing money out since it was dislodged, and the bystanders quickly turned to looters as they tried to get every dollar bill they could. The ATM didn't make contact tough the thug jumped forward before it hit him. He fired a few rounds at Raven, but it was no use; her powers constructed a force field around her. 

Cy had a different story though, he rushed forward as a frightened thug fired rounds off randomly, shocked to sheer terror. He hit him with his mechanical arm and the man flew forward trough the teller's desk, knocking it down. He was left unconscious. Cyborg noted his weaker frame compared to the others.

Force quickly made a ball of energy and thrust it forward, hitting one square in the chest and knocking him out as well. Force knew the man didn't see him as a threat, as he wasn't one of the Titans. The other thugs, however, saw what happened and put him on their hit list. Here is the count for the first round of hits: Titans: 6 Thugs: 6; they started out with two more than the Titans.

Robin did a jump kick right and hit the leader square in the face with his steel-tipped boots. After the hit, he was waving from side to side, but he was still conscious. Robin knew the next one would take him out.

Beast boy turned into a tiger and quickly dodged the one shot his enemy was able to get on him before he was close enough. He quickly turned into a snake and bit the thug. The poison would only render him unconscious. He then turned to rush away the myriad of customers looking to get a quick buck, courtesy of Raven's ATM.

Starfire decided she had thrown enough bolts and decided to hit her enemy with three punches, two to the chest, and one to the head. He still wasn't down. That man had to be the toughest of the crew. Luckily, Cyborg quickly administered a low-grade stun blast to his torso, instantly knocking him out. 

Raven was irritated; she picked up a tile and thrust it at him. She hit, but it wasn't enough. She was glad to see Force's fist, super-charged with his energy, hit that stupid, fast thug right in the chin. He was knocked out.

The leader began firing rounds like a madman, trying to even scratch Robin. He was too fast, though. Robin threw himself side to side and took out from his utility belt his extend-o-poll. Robin jumped, and thwacked his foe horizontally with his staff. His enemy fell to the ground. With a hit that hard, he'll be out cold for a while.

Beast Boy shoed all the customers away and joined the others. The entire fight took maybe three minutes. They stayed with the villains until the proper authorities arrived to place them in jail (If the police are the proper authorities then why is it all they do is take the big bad guys to jail?). The cops eventually arrived after about ten minutes to relieve the Titans of their job, and they headed back to the Tower. Robin and Cyborg took their vehicles; the rest took to the skies again.

Back at the Tower, the interrogation would officially begin, but first, Robin had a few words to say. "Nice work. You fight fairly well."

Ark thought he'd be polite and pay him a compliment. "You too."

"Now, before I allow you to stay I would like to ask you a few questions."

"If you don't mind Robin, I have one of my own. How do you guys know me?"

"I believe I can answer that one," said Raven. She went into detail about the vision, the two energies, and Robin's dark figure. She told him that she also probed the thugs' minds that were hunting him the night before. The only relevant information she could find was that his name was Ark Magnus. 

Ark/Force confirmed that Robin's dark figure was indeed the first energy. "That sounds like Vincent alright, powerful, mysterious, and more cryptic than a Star Wars Jedi."

"Now, we need answers. What is this organization, and what do they want with you?"

"I can't tell you much, but I'll reveal what I can." Said Ark. "The organization has many things going on, the only thing I can tell you about is the school. It's a place to train the psyonicly gifted. I was raised there. How I ended up there is something I'd like to keep to myself, but I can tell you of the natural energy that Raven told you about. It's an energy that emanates from a person's mind. Everyone is born with it, but some have it more than others; it's like a talent. Anyway, I left that place for a reason that I'd also like keep to myself. Vincent is a field agent there; he hunts down those that leave the organization. The name for them is, you guessed it, Renegade. That's all I can tell you for now, I don't want you to become too much of a target to them."

Robin was satisfied with his answers said, "That's good enough for now. You can stay the night here as long as you need."

"Thank you." Ark was sure he was safe for the night, and since he was safe, the adrenaline stopped flowing trough him, and since there was no adrenaline was running through him, he began to realize how fatigued his body really was. "I didn't get any sleep last night, so if you'll excuse me, I cold use some rest."

It was getting late and the others didn't get to sleep until late that night so one by one they excused themselves to their beds. Robin and Cyborg were the last ones up that night and before Robin was going to retire to his bed, Cyborg approached him.

"Robin, Raven had me do a background check on this guy. I think you should see this."

"What is it?"

"Well I searched trough birth certificates, social security numbers, and anything else I could think of. They all came up negative. The only file I could find was encrypted and it took forever to decipher. Whoever this guy is, someone doesn't want us to know about him."

"Can I see?"

"Sure man."

"Let's see here." Robin inspected it paying attention to every detail.

Organization Profiles:

Name: Ark Magnus

Field Name: Force

Age: 16

Blood Type: AB

Height: 5' 5"

Weight: 108lbs.

Occupation: Specter

Status: Renegade

"What could this mean?" asked Robin.

"I asked myself the same question," replied a confused Cyborg. "I think we should sleep on this. So, good night, man."

"Good night Cy." They both went to bed. Robin thought a bit on it, but he decided that he should get some sleep before he accidentally pulls an all-nighter. 

It was a restful night. Every one of the Titans got a full night's sleep that night and slept peacefully that entire night. But unfortunately, Force wasn't a Titan. Though he did sleep trough the night, his rest was far from peaceful. That night he dreamed a dream that had haunted him for two years, the dream of his first and only official mission for the organization.


	5. Chapter 5

**Renegade:**

**Chapter 5**

It is cold, but I am trained to resist such feelings. It is dark, but being afraid of the dark if for children. Today, I am no child. I am a messenger of peace through strength, a weapon of war that holds great power within me. Today, I am a Specter. A fighter, a warrior, trained in both the art of the shadows and the art of war, I am the strongest of the organization's professions. Unlike the Phantoms that don't exist, and the Ghosts that strike only from the shadows, I am brave; I am strong. I prep myself for the coming mission. It will be my first, and it will be the deciding moment in my life. I am in a field, on a hill, which over looks a bunker, my enemy. I take out my videophone out my jacket pocket and contact my superior.

"Are you ready?" asked the all too familiar voice of Vincent, my teacher.

"Yes sir, give me my briefing." 

"The bunker inside is your target. It is a military facility, and our Phantoms report that they are preparing to attack the organization. Your job is to assassinate any potential hostiles. Your methods are endless. You just can't let anyone know what happened."

"Yes sir."

I know exactly what to do. I creep slowly over to the brush near the bunker and observe the entrance. I see two guards dressed in military uniforms. They are using outdated rifles. Funny, I would expect an enemy of the organization to be better armed. Whatever it just makes the job easier. At the top of the bunker are two security cameras; I'm going to have to take the guards out quickly. I use my telekinesis me move my legs and feet super-fast. I take both guards by their collars and pull them into the bush on the other side. They were too shocked to notice what happened. I quickly kick them one in the head and punch one of them in the neck near his Adam's apple. They both fall to the ground in die. No alarms. Perfect. I search both of the guards for anything I would need. One of them carried a key to the west entrance, the one he was patrolling. The other had a keycard to the security system. I'll need both.

Easy enough, so far, they must have more waiting for me inside, yeah. Now, I'm going to have to be quick. Run, run, run, I'm there. Okay quickly put the keycard in. CRAP! I put it in backwards. Quickly, quickly, put it right side up. Please say the security guard isn't at his post. I'm in. Weird, nobody's here, gotta' be an ambush waiting. Now, stay on my toes. There's someone in the next hall. Perfect, okay, I run up to him. Give him a punch to the face, stomach, and kick to the legs. He's out.

The alarm triggered! Finally, at least now I can fight them in a tight hallway. Here they come. I can hear their feet patting the ground. Now this is weird, this isn't nearly loud enough to be an entire bunker load. Anyway, I jump out of the corner just as they're about to cross around. I give them a good Psi-Wave takes them all down.

Wait. 1...2.3.4. There are only 10 of them! What the heck is going on! These guys are WAY too under equipped, under trained, and under staffed. Why did they send my here? What threat could they pose? I should really stop questioning HQ and start looking for others.

DANGIT! That alarm is getting annoying! Okay first things first, I should check the guards for a map to the security room.

First one. Nothing.

Second. No-go.

Third. Nadda.

Fourth. Bingo!

Now where is that room? I look at the map to discover that it is at room 12B. Great, it's on the other side of the bunker. Now I have to listen to that racket until I get there. 

The trip there wasn't hard. That's what worries me. I'm beginning to think this whole mission is a blatant lie. But why would they do something like that?

Finally, I'm there. Now, let's get that freaking alarm off. Good. Now let's see what guards we have on post. There are the two guards at the entrance on patrol around. What the- they were the ONLY ones patrolling outside! Calm down. Let's get a check on all of the guards on post right now. That's the one that one took out inside. The ten I took out after the alarm went off and. NO! That's it. Why did HQ send me here? They sent Phantoms. They should have known this place was worthless.

Then the realization hit me. They sent me to butcher them. This was just something they wanted. I can't be the only one. I can't. What about the Renegades? I bet this is why they left. I've gotta' leave. I can't stay, but where would I go? I don't know, but it can't be here. 

This was the chronicle of Ark's first and only mission. He was a Specter, the warriors of the organization. Vincent was a Phantom, spies, invisible stalkers that don't exist. And then there were the Ghosts, assassins, sent to kill one person or a group of people.

What is it like? To realize one day that you're a fourteen-year-old butcher, it was unimaginable for Ark. It was so soul torturing to him that he lived a life of seclusion for two years. The organization didn't like this. Since he was raised there he definitely knew too much. They had to kill him. He escaped time, after time until two years passed. This made him the longest surviving Renegade…ever. But is his time winding down? Nobody can really tell. That night, Ark once again relived his greatest sin, and every time he has that dream he wakes up wondering what's next.


	6. Chapter 6

**Renegade**

**Chapter 6**

Ark slowly wiped the cold sweat from his brow as he woke up from his nightmare. He surveyed his surroundings for the first time. He looked to his left and saw the morning sun hitting his eyes. It stung like heck like it usually does for most people.

"Crap! I should have closed the blinds before I went to bed. What time is it anyway?"

He pulled back his shirt to reveal a simple digital watch, which read: 8:15.

"Okay I slept way too long. What time was it when I went to bed anyway? It was like 7:23 or so."

He tried to remember when he had slept so long. He couldn't remember. Ark began thinking about Vincent and how safe it was in Titans' Tower. He concluded that he could stay a minimum of three weeks before the _organization _could launch a reasonable offensive. He always went with the minimum rather than the maximum.

Ark began to look around the room familiarizing himself with it. It was Terra's old room. Of course, Ark didn't know that. He was in the Gotham Slums at the time. He just knew that this room had something to do with why the Titans didn't trust him. He didn't blame them. In their position, he wouldn't have trusted himself. But then, Ark wasn't the trusting type.

A knock at the door came and Ark made his way to the source of the noise. He pressed the _open_ button on the sliding door to reveal a rather excited Starfire.

"Yes? What is it?"

"One called Force, my friends and I would like to invite you to partake of the Earth eating custom of Break-fast.

Force decided to not the correct the mistake he just told her that he would be right there. He put on his red jacket, and walked out the door making his way to the living room.

When he got there all the Titans were busy eating their food but took the time to look up at him. Robin was, interested. He didn't really look like he didn't trust him. It's just that he didn't want to be betrayed again. Beast Boy had the look of sheer distrust toward Force. Normally the hyper one, he didn't really say all that much during the meal. Cyborg to the contrary seemed to take a more casual approach. Like Robin he was careful, but didn't seem to have as many questions on his face. You couldn't tell what Raven was thinking as usual. No man, woman, or narrator could tell what she was thinking. Starfire was in joyful bliss. When she's outside of battle, it's pretty hard to get her mad. But if you do, watch out. 

Force walked over to the kitchen area and assumed it was okay for him to sample what was left. Fortunately, he was pretty good at making assumptions. They didn't mind him taking some food. He sat down with the Titans and started eating his food. Starfire offered Force some of her…thing. And he took it. The titans watched in amazement as he ate it. It wasn't a delicacy. But he had to dig up worse meals in his life. For some reason this made Beast Boy trust him less. There was another human who wasn't afraid of Tamaranian food. And she was the traitor.

"So you like that stuff?" said Cyborg.

"I've had worse." Force replied

"You…have?" asked Raven

"Sure."

Beast Boy was the first to finish his Tofu. He put his plate up in the sink and left the room not saying a word.

"What's his problem?" Asked Cyborg.

"Dunno." Force was stump as well

Robin whispered to Cyborg. The only word that Ark could make out was "Terra."

"Oooh, I get it." Cyborg said.

Raven was next to finish as she concluded with her last sip of herbal tea. She set the cup in the sink and walked out without saying anything. Nobody asked any questions about why Raven wasn't all sunshine and cheery. Star was next as she ate the last of the…thing. The rest of the guys were enjoying their meals savoring every bite.

"So, I'm going out to the gym if you want be and you could spar." Robin wanted to get Force to open up, if not a little.

"I don't mind, who knows it might be fun." Force laughed

"Well I'm going to see what's wrong with BB. Letting him win a couple of rounds of X Race should cheer him up." Cyborg was worried for his best friend but his worry turned to worry about himself as he said, "Hey guys could you finish it up? It's my turn to do dishes and I do _not_ want to be doing them until noon."

"Sure thing Cyborg." Robin just finished anyway and Force wasn't far behind. Cy was starting on them when they left.

Robin guided Force to the gym where they began sparing.

Robin laid down the ground rules. "Okay, a few rules, no powers and no utility belt; we're going all natural with this fight."

Force didn't have any objections.

"Okay…Begin!" 

Robin charged at Force with his fist up. Force dodged to the left but Robin didn't go through with the attack. He only wanted him to think that he was going to hit him. Robin turned to his defenseless opponent. This was his moment of opportunity. He launched a flurry of three blows. Force blocked two of them, both headshots, but fell victim to the third that hit him right in the gut. Force retaliated with a hook shot toward the head. Robin easily blocked it by doing a quick back flip. Force knew that this was his chance. He quickly launched into a jump kick. Robin tried the turn to the right to dodge it, but wasn't fast enough. It hit him in his left shoulder. They both formed defensive positions and prepared for the next attack. Robin quickly hastened toward Force and launched one hard punch to the chest. Bingo! He was off balance. This was his chance. He was able to get five hits in during that time each one fast and soft. After those five punches, Force was able to get his bearings straight and lifted his arm in defense. With that blocked blow. Robin left himself open to attack. Force grabbed his left arm and threw him over toward the wall. This irritated Robin's already hurt shoulder. It was on now. Robin had a quiet smirk on his face as he ran up to Force. Robin launched a sweep kick to trip Force. It worked. He began to fall over but before he had the chance, Robin launched a forceful punch that flew him into the wall. It was over.

"You're pretty good." Force grabbed his stomach because of the pain.

"So are you." Robin grabbed for his left shoulder which Force obviously took a liking too. 

But as the two boys fought, Vincent was preparing for a fight of his own. The master's associate will take care of the security system. But he will take care of the Titans. He found an abandoned subway system and made it "HQ". There he gathered his force for the emanate attack. He wasn't sure when it would be, but he was positive it would be less that _three weeks_. The element of surprise would be on his side. And the Renegade, would be his.


	7. Chapter 7

**Renegade**

**Chapter 7**

The two teens, one the ward of Gotham's _Dark Knight_, the other a victim of pain and tragedy, began to see eye-to-eye. Robin was becoming confident that his guest would not betray him like his last guest. Force was sure of Robin's, and all the other Titans for that matter, abilities. They would be able to handle themselves should he get too close. The two were exhausted panting and trying to get some air. Robin was about to ask about the profile Cyborg pulled up, but decided to ask a more, appropriate question.

"Your fighting style is pretty good; what's your workout method?

Force tried to explain his _unique_ style of training. "How should I say this…Well you know I'm telekinetic. So what I do is use my powers to apply pressure to my muscles. Also I extend them and retract them so that my muscles burn down. Then I let the natural process take hold; my muscles begin to build back up. I end up freaking sore the next morning but it is an effective method. That is just the tip of the iceberg. It's never been done but theoretically, if someone had enough power and focus they could split an atom causing a nuclear fission reaction, a.k.a. a nuclear blast."

"Amazing," Robin was pretty impressed at this point. "Looks like you really think outside the box."

"It wasn't me; it was what I was trained to do."

"Well, _I _have to keep myself in top condition by training the normal way. Speaking of which, I'll have to begin unless you want another sparing match."

"I'm good." Said Force. He was grabbing his hurt stomach.

"Okay, your loss." Robin had an arrogant smirk on his face.

Force walked out of the gym and began wondering the halls. He made it to the living room with the big T.V. when he over heard some shouting. 

"IT'S NOT MY FAULT THE CONTROLLER'S BUSTED!" It sounded like Beast Boy.

"Come on man, you've went through five controllers already what are the chances of them _all_ being broken." That voice sounded like an irritated Cyborg.

"IT'S THE CONTROLER SLOT THEN! WE NEED A NEW SYSTEM!"

"It's only a _month_ old." 

"THEN IT'S THE GAME!"

"It's a rental and the game came out _two weeks_ ago."

"BUT I…I DIDN'T LOSE!"

"That's not what the victory screen says. Face it. BB you lost. I won. I am still the king!"

Beast Boy gave out a sigh. "Whatever man, I hate this game anyway."

Starfire's voice could be heard over the bickering. "Is it my turn to, _play the winner?_

Force really wanted to get away from the noise. It was funny. But it was loud. He decided to go up to the roof. It was a clear spring day outside, as he knew because it woke him up. He surveyed his surroundings. The sun's gleam over the city made it look somehow majestic. He looked around further and began hearing a sound. It sounded something like "Azerath, Metreon, Zinthos". He looked toward his right and saw Raven meditating. A book was clasped in her hand.

"Hello?"

"What is it?" Raven's meditation was officially broken. She too was affected by Cy and BB's argument; it already had her irritated so she was now in too bad a mood to meditate the only thing left was to read her book.

"What book is that?" Force eyed the cover with curiosity.

"Nothing you would understand." Raven clearly didn't want to talk right now. 

"Du'loun's Guide to Magcraft." He read it aloud. "It was okay but he seemed to rely too much on Shadowcraft. He puts practically no faith in Lightcraft either."

"You know about magic?" Raven's interest was sparked.

"Yeah, since my power is derived from natural essences I like to see what the other side is like. My specialty is Wind, but I'm only good enough to put out a candle."

"Interesting." Raven thought this man to be a rare sight. First his past was dark, like hers. He couldn't get too close to anybody, like her. Yet, here he is talking to her carrying on a conversation. She thought she would entertain him for a while. "You're one powerful mage."

Force laughed to himself. He couldn't remember the last time he had ever laughed. They both sat silent for a while. Raven couldn't act sarcastically without him saying something and he couldn't think of what to say. He tried something, something not particularly smart. "So, uh…you were about to look into my thoughts that's pretty impressive, if not a little creepy."

There it was, the "**_C"_** word. She put her book back up and began reading again. Force was stuck in bewilderment on what had happened. He tried to save what conversation he had.

"Wait, I uh…didn't mean it, whatever I said."

"It's nothing, now if you excuse me, I have a book to read."

Force gave up. There obviously was no talking to her when she was angry at Cyborg, Beast Boy, and for SOME reason him. But he still didn't want to be alone, to go by himself. He felt something charismatic about the Titans, all of them. He thought the Tower was a place that he had never been, home. He walked back down to the living room. They weren't playing games anymore. Instead the news was on. He phased out some of the reporters message until something caught his ear. 

"In other news, reports have come in about a 'mysterious person' wearing a large sword on his back. He is suspected of murder of a young man in a suburb of Jump City. Police are asking for help of catching this alleged criminal."

"Wraith…" Force's eyes widened; his ears stood at attention. A gasp of terror came over him. Wraith was there. Vincent is somewhere near by. They will be planning an attack soon, a large one. Suddenly, he wanted to be alone. He didn't want to hurt the Titans and with both Wraith and Vincent, they would be hurt.

The o_rganization_ is a multi-faceted thing. It is a culmination of several independent corporations. Publicly, they have no affiliation. Privately, the organization's leader weaves his power. His grip on his territory is strong.

One of the corporations with ties to the _orginization_ is Czerka Weapons Research. One of the most predominate weapons research facilities in the world, and like all of the _organization_, it had its secrets. It ran a secret army of highly trained warriors. These warriors would be assisting Vincent on his mission. One of the soldiers walked up Vincent and gave him a message.

"Sir, Wraith is in the area, he has been ordered to assist us on our mission."

"Excellent marine, it seems I will be ready a lot sooner then."

"They gave him the job of capturing the Renegade. You are to capture Robin."

"Why Robin?"

"Their associate has ties with him, he specifies that he must have the Titans alive, Robin especially.

"Very well, I shall continue my work then."

"Yes sir."

The _organization's_ marine left Vincent to contemplate these turn of events.

_Wraith is here, yes. Now that another senior officer has arrived I can attack before the end of the week, maybe sooner. Yes, capturing the Renegade will be a fortunate event for me indeed. _


	8. Chapter 8

**Renegade**

**Chapter 8**

_It is imperative that your endeavor is successful. It was fortunate that the Renegade chose to seek refuge with the Titans; it will speed up our plans greatly. After you catch both the Renegade and the Titans Jump city will need protection. The Visor's Protectorate would step in at that point and take charge of the city, making it ours. I'm sure you've heard of their work in the Gotham Restoration Project. If Jump City is under as much control as Gotham is now, then I don't need to tell you how this will aid our efforts. Your victory would be just what we need. Failure is not an option._

_-Them_

Vincent read aloud the letter given to him by one of the marines. Sitting there in the dark abandoned subway, he smiled at reading of his master's confidence. As he lied there in preparation, consolidating his forces, it became abundantly clear that today was the eve of battle. What's more he knew that the Renegade realized this as well.

Ark rushed through the halls with a look of terror. Heading past hallway after hallway he finally made it to his room. He couldn't stay there. He opened the door and began gathering his belongings, five silver balls, an old paperback book, and a simple digital watch. He was still missing another ball. He began rummaging through a dresser he came across a silver heart-shaped locket covered in dust. Ark took it out and eyed it curiously. He wondered what it could be. He flipped it open to reveal a picture of two people, obviously a couple. One was quickly identified as Beast Boy due to the green skin. The other wasn't as easily identifiable. He couldn't tell who she was. So he began studying her. She had on a black T-shirt with a yellow circle encircling a "T" in the same shade of yellow. She had long blonde hair, and had a face that screamed, "I'm keeping a secret" He decided that he would show it to Beast Boy before he left. Finally he found the last of his simple silver balls. He put them all in the right pocket of his red jacket. He put the locket in the left. He began walking toward the door. He was hoping to be able to get out before they noticed. He opened the door. It looked like they already noticed. All the Titans were huddled around the doorway Starfire had he hand up, clenched in a fist, which told him they were about to start knocking.

"Friend Force, what troubles you? Why are you in "the hurry?" Starfire was very worried.

"It's nothing," Ark didn't want them to know, then even if he left, they would hunt them. "I just have to leave."

"You WHAT? What do you mean you're leaving?" Ark's announcement didn't register with Cyborg. He was worried like Starfire, but he and Robin also still had a look of questions. They wanted to know the secret of Ark's profile.

"If this is about who's chasing you," Robin began. "Don't worry. We'll help you fight them."

"You don't understand do you? If I die, I would be just a voiceless martyr! Nobody would care! If it were you, an entire city would be lost!" Ark snapped with anger.

"That's where you're wrong. First of all, we would care if you died," She thought about saying that she would care if he died, but she didn't think it was appropriate at the time, maybe later. "And secondly, we won't fail."

All the other Titans shared her sentiment.

"Look man, you don't have to worry yourself so much. If anyone _did_ have the right to worry, it'd be us. Think about all we know about you is that you're name is Ark Magnus and you're some kinda Renegade _Specter _or whatever." said Robin

"How did you know my name was Ark? How did you know about the specters?"

"I did a search for your information, though I had to go through endless encryptions and firewalls, that was all I found." Cyborg confessed.

"You don't understand, now you know too much. I can't even leave now you guys are marked."

"Then tell us friend, tell us your troubles. What is it that chases you?" Star said.

Force gave out a sigh. "I guess if you're going to be attacked you should know who it is. Now, I only found this out two months ago but it is my beginning. The _organization _employs several undercover agents. One of which are nurses. They are given orders. Take any child with significant physic abilities. This is what happened to me. On the day I was born the nurse serving my mother noticed I had these aforementioned physic abilities. She knew her orders and carried them out. At a time when nobody was looking, she took me. She had the ability to cloak so it was a simple matter after that of waiting for someone to drop me off to. She placed me in a car as standard procedure, and it drove off, to the nearest school that the _organization_ offered. That was how I came into the_ organization. _My birth name was Ark but they decided to give me a different name, Force. I was trained to be a Specter, a warrior in their physic army. There are three professions in that school, a Specter, a Phantom, someone like Vincent, an invisible spy. Then there are the Ghosts, the assassins and hunters of the three."

"Man, I didn't know it was like that. I'm really sorry for you." Cyborg tried to comfort him.

"Duuude." Was all that Beast Boy could get out.

Raven, was very sad for him, now she knew his past was as dark hers, and nobody knows her past.

"How unfortunate! To cheer you up I shall sing the Tameranian song of happiness. All one hundred and eight verses." Star said.

"Let's not Star. Look, I'm sorry for what happened to you, and I'm glad you told us. I would be more than willing to defend you." Robin said.

Reflecting on the bad times that he had. The evil crimes committed against him, made him want to be alone. He told to Titans how he felt and then one by one they all left. Beast Boy was the last there.

"Wait Beast Boy. I found this in my room." Ark gave him his locket. Beast Boy opened it and tears came over his eyes and all the good memories of the former Titans came to him. "Terra." He said.

"Thanks, dude. Really, this thing means a lot to me." the green teen said. 

"It's no problem." said the Renegade. It was clear that he had earned Beast Boys trust. 

There, on the eve of battle the Titans, and Ark, made their preparations. Force didn't expressly say that tonight that battle would come, but they all just felt it. On that note the day ended, and a dark night began.


	9. Chapter 9

**Renegade**

**Chapter 9**

It was a calm, peaceful night. The moon was full and brightly shining. The city had already gone to sleep. There were only a few lights visible. The stars were emanating an aura of peace due to their light. It was the kind of night that made you appreciate all that life had to offer. Wraith loved the irony.

He sat there at his post waiting, going over the attack plan in his head. "Vincent can take care of Robin, the Marines will take care of the other Titans, and it's my job to take out the Renegade. I'm going to like this." The battle would be sixteen Marines versus Starfire, Raven, Cyborg, and Beast Boy, Robin versus Vincent, and Wraith versus the Renegade. He sat there meditating on every possible outcome and his gut feeling told him that the Renegade would run. If he did, he would case him. He lied there polishing his red stained blade, no doubt due to the blood it has tasted. He thought of all the unimaginable things that he would do to him. The unspeakable horrors that would make many wince in disgust put a simple sadistic smile on his face. They all sat there on the coast of Titan's Isle going over their plan one last time.

With him are Vincent and the Marines. They were in Czerka's Heavy Infantry Armor, a very unusual sight. They looked more like astronauts than soldiers due to their bulky powerful armor. The plating was some made of one of the hardest materials known to man. They were broad shouldered and held an advanced assault rifle; there was a glass dome over their heads. The dome was perhaps one of the most interesting parts of they're armor. They're weapon and the dome are wirelessly linked so that wherever they move a little pointer moved with them. It looked like something out of a First Person Shooter's HUD, displaying the area a bullet was most likely to hit. The gun itself was also a fascinating thing. It had two modes: an automatic mode where the aimer is wider and goes in a larger area; it is used when you want to spray an area with gunfire, the other mode was the semi-automatic mode. It was more reliable therefore it displayed a smaller, narrower target. Each mode had an on board armor piercing mode for tougher opponents. The problem was, that mode was loud as heck.

Vincent was clothed in a dark blue hooded cloak. He preferred it to his casual trench coat and hat. He felt it made him feel more…mysterious. He was preparing the team for the battle up ahead.

"Okay men, this is the moment of truth. The master's associate is inside the tower as we speak and is waiting to disable the security systems on my mark. Your job is to confront and capture the Teen Titans, don't kill them. We'll do most affective if we're they're separated so you should divide yourselves in half. Eight of you take the south entrance the others take the east. We are not going to botch this one up. Tonight we taste victory."

The Marines nodded in approval. With that pep talk they began creeping down the isle, just outside of what one could see through the tower.

The Titans were up late, talking, laughing and having general fun. They had almost forgotten about the coming battle, almost. Cyborg typed in a few keys on the computer and was activating the routine nighttime system lock-down. Everyone else was sitting on the cough getting ready for bed. Robin and Starfire sat next to each other. Robin nervously put his arm around Star's shoulder. The Tameraian didn't know what this gesture meant but was happy to have him by her side all the same. They both looked at each other and made a smile. They were feeling pretty good.

Beast Boy was in the middle of gloating his victory over Force at Super Monkey Fighter Four. Having lost the battle, Force swallowed his pride and walked over to where Raven was sitting and sat down. She put down her book to have a conversation with her guest. They talked about minor issues, current events and the like. They were both simply happy to be talking to someone who understood them, even though the conversation itself wasn't particularly deep.

Yes, they all were happen in that moment, until it happened.

"What the? Guys. Get over here." Cyborg souted. The alarm was beginning to sound. The Titans rushed over to the over sized Television/Supercomputer. Cyborg brought up the security signals of eight cameras. Three of them were blank.

"What is it?" asked the leader of the Titans.

"I've lost visual feedback with all the cameras watching the outside of the tower." Cyborg replied.

"What are you saying," asked Beast Boy. "Are we being hacked?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying."

"Then we should spilt up. If all the cameras are out it properly means someone's going to attack from multiple sides. Cyborg, Beast Boy, you take the east entrance. Raven, Starfire, you take the south. I'll go to the helipad to see if there is anything up there. Titans Go!" Robin gave the team their orders and they went through with them, each going to their respective location, only Force and Robin were left in the room.

"What do I do?" asked Force.

"You need to get out of here. They'll be looking for you and we're not letting them find you."

"But I-"

"No! Your heard me! We can handle ourselves but you gotta leave town."

Force knew that this was the best onion, but he still wasn't happy with it. Never the less, he went though with Robin's command and left the tower by going to the west. Wraith spotted him trying to escape and began to tail him.

Beast Boy and Cyborg were waiting in a type of pressroom, the same room where they first met their guest that is causing them so much trouble. A loud bang clanged from the door. The Marines were trying to break it down. The two sat ready for anything that might come through. The constant rhythm of the beating eventually bade a small hole in the door. Through it, they tossed a small cylinder that hit the ground. It sat there for a second and then began emitting a yellowish gas.

"C2 Gas!" Shouted Cyborg

"What?" Asked Beast Boy.

"Nasty stuff, if you breathe it for too long it'll knock you out. We need to get rid of it."

Beast Boy took that as a hint and transformed into a Pterodactyl and began flapping his wings to expel the gas outside. He was eventually successful. Seeing this, the Marines decided to take a slightly different approach. They began banging at the door again; the door got wider and wider until there was a larger opening. It still was not enough for a man to go through but it was enough to fit more gas tanks. Out of the door came seven more cylinders. Cyborg and Beast Boy both saw that it would be impossible to get rid of them all so they decided to retreat and face them at another location

Robin ran swift fully up the flight of stairs until finally reaching the top floor. He swung open the door but was too late. A dark hooded figure was standing in the middle helipad waiting for him. Robin quickly discerned the figures identity and addressed him by name. 

"Vincent I presume."

"Robin, nice to finally meet you."

"Likewise."

"So will you give yourself up or will I have to take you down myself?"

"Looks like I'm doing it the hard way."

Vincent ran right at his foe with an impossible speed. He took his small teenaged frame by the shoulders and thrusted him into his knee, butting him hard in the gut. Robin was sent straight into the door and on his knees. He stood up and tried to locate his foe. Vincent was standing there in there middle of the helipad like nothing had happened. Robin drew a plan up in his mind. He took out his extend-o-pole and ran at him. He feigned to the left. Vincent just stood there. He feigned to the right. Vincent just stood there. He made it look like his pole but then at the last moment, he pushed it down like a pole-vault and launched himself over his head to do a kick from behind. Vincent stopped standing and kicked the fallen pole to his hand. He turned around with an agile grace and smacked him right in the head just before Robin would have kicked him. Robin went flying towards the edge, landed, and then began rolling, before it was over with, his hand was dangling from off the edge. Robin stood to attention. That last blow hit him hard. His vision was bleary for a moment and as it cleared he saw Vincent, just standing there. Robin shock off the pain of that last blow, he knew exactly what he was going to do. The only problem was, so did Vincent.

Ark finally made it past Titan's Isle and into the streets. Half of him wanted to go back and help the Titans; the other half wanted to keep on running. He went with the other half. Unknown to Ark, Wraith had been following him and every turn he made, every path he crossed, would only lead him closer to an inevitable battle. Ark kept running, a sudden flash of light came with every streetlight he ran across. The Illumination kept him sharp, alert.

The streets were abandoned, nobody went out or in of regularly busy intersections. Nobody was burning the midnight oil to get one last project done. It was like a ghost town. In the miles that Ark ran, he never saw a soul but then, at an intersection he saw a dark figure, a very familiar dark figure. The dark figure stepped into a streetlight to reveal a face, a face of Wraith.

Wraith was an ominous figure. He wore a black leather coat that covered over three fourths of his body. The parts of him that you could see were horribly scared, yet well built. On his back laid the hilt of a sword, a ninja blade. Unlike the Katana, a Ninja's weapon is straight, used for stabbing and assassination. It was more of a weapon of evil than a weapon of honor. It was this blade that was Wraith's weapon-of-choice. His hair was long and unkempt and its color was the same as his skin, pale white. But perhaps the most ominous future of this 'man' was his eyes.

There is a thing in our world called the eyes of the murderer. One with the blackest heart can only obtain them and most blood stained hands, by looking into these eyes you would see that the wearer had no value upon life, nor does he mind killing. In fact, you would see he actually enjoys it. This is what Ark saw. He saw the eyes of a man he would have been.

"Hello Renegade. Been a while." Wraith had a grim smile on his face

"Wraith." Ark said in a monotone voice similar to the voice that Robin uses when confronted with a certain man.

"Do you know what?" Wraith asked. "I long for the day where cowardice Renegade's like you would go to the abandoned rat-holes of towns where nobody would care if it's entire population just 'disappeared', Not at all like these cities."

He took out of his hand a silver fork. "This is the fork I used for breakfast this morning. It was at a little dinner. The people there were asking too many questions, and I began to count the possible ways to kill them all with only this fork, when I realized, I couldn't get away with it because you had to go to a heavily populated city. So instead of killing them I'll take my frustration out on you. First of all, have seen you my latest work on the news."

"I did."

"Did they show any pictures?"

"I'm sorry no."

"A shame. It really was quite a work of Art. The way he was hung, the position of his body parts, it was all...perfect. Imagine what I'm about to do to you. Yes your death is nigh, your destruction, imamate, your-" Wraith's sentence was cut off by Ark's fist. 

"You really need to learn to stop doing monologues like that. It gets really annoying." Ark had an arrogant smirk on his face.

"First of all it wasn't a monologue it was a soliloquy, get it right! Secondly, you are **_so_** dead now!"

Wraith released his sword from hit's sheath. A slight glint of light was reflected that made it seem like poetry in motion, as long as the poet was Edgar Allen Poe. He rushed at Ark, put his sword parallel to his body. He struck. Ark dodged it but only by a hair. Ark clenched his hand tight and propelled it forward, sending a block of energy heading straight for Wraith. The energy hit Wraith like a brick. He flew backward and hit the ground. He jumped up like a reflex. Sword in hand, Wraith nimbly cut from side to side avoiding wave after wave of Ark's energy. "Rahh!" He shouted as he neared his prey. He quickly struck diagonally. Ark tried to avoid it but to no avail. It grazed his chest and tore apart his jacket. He then stuck with another attack barely hitting Ark's left cheek. Ark then jumped back to give him and his opponent some room. He quickly discarded the tattered jacket and both fighters formed offensive positions. Ark gathered a large about of energy at his figure tips. This was going to be harder than he thought.

Starfire was with Raven preparing for the coming attack. Raven pulled to pieces of wall out to form a primitive barricade in an attempt to hinder the Marine's entry. The girls had an easy enough time taking care of the early cylinder attack. Raven simply surrounded the smoke grenades with her black energy and threw them out. Each girl sat on opposite ends of the barricade, Raven on the left, Star on the right. The girls heard banging coming from the door. There was a banging, banging, banging, until eventually there was a hole large enough to crawl though. Three Marines climbed through, two stayed at the door the provide cover-fire, the rest went into various strategic positions. The three crept slowly in. The room was dark. To compensate for this the Marines turned on their Nigh Vision mode on their glass dome. One walked forward toward the barricade knowing someone must be behind it. He was right. Starfire flew up into the air surprising the soldier. They fired their guns at her. Star avoided these with the grace of an angel and as an angel, she unleashed a hail of Starbolts hitting all of them, but more importantly, their illumination caused the Night Vision to display an incredibly bright object, temporarily blinding them. It was then Raven struck. She used her powers in an attempt to grab a gun away from one of them. Feeling this tug, the Marine pushed back and struggled to keep his weapon accidentally send four bullets toward her, one over her head, two on either side. Starfire continued dodging her enemies attacks and responding with her own. She took one down after a while. A Marine ran to take his place switching his gun the Semi-Automatic mode. The Target displayed narrow and after three misses one finally made contact. It stunned her and sent her to the ground leaving Raven alone. Raven was behind the barricade when a circular object was thrown over.

"What is that? A fragmentation grenade!"

Raven quickly surrounded the grenade with a field of black energy barely, but safely detonating it.

They were charging down the tower. The Titans were under siege. The fight would continue on, and only one side could claim victory.


	10. Chapter 10

**Renegade**

**Chapter 10**

Dark clouds were looming over the city; the sky was becoming angry. At first it was just a trickle. A trickle turned into a shower. The shower turned into an all out storm. The rain pattered down on the abandoned highways and byways, but the thunder where all could hear it.

"Aaaaah!" screamed a little boy. He was sitting in his racecar bed. The young boy huddled himself together thinking about what was happening.

"It was only rain. It was only rain. What if it wasn't rain? What if Thunder and Lighting are back? Mommy!" The little boy ran in fright to his parent's room. He cracked open the door which gave a loud squeak, which woke up the boy's mother.

"What's wrong Bobby?"

"It's raining. I'm scared that of the lightning. What if Thunder and Lightning are back? I don't wanna have our house destroyed again."

"Come up here." The mother spoke gently; the young child obeyed his mother's request. She picked him up and laid him down in between her and his father. She stroked her fingers through her son's hair, for some reason that would always calm him down.

"Don't worry; if they are back the Titans will take care of them."

"Yeah! The Titans never lose."

"Hurry!" Cyborg's booming voice ordered Beast Boy who was lagging behind. They were running for some form of refuge. They found it. It was the room that the T-Sub laid in. It was still a spaceship from their last mission. Cyborg and Beast Boy ran into the room. Cyborg put his hand on the fingertip scanner. The door closed and lock behind them.

"What are we gonna do Cy?" Asked Beast Boy, he was worried they might lose.

"Fight." Cyborg simply replied.

The door swished back open.

"Arggggh! Whoever is hacking us is too good. They've made it so I can't lock the doors anymore! What are we going to do now?" Cyborg was infinitely frustrated.

"Hide." Was Beast Boy's response, he was suggesting an ambush which was a pretty good idea for him.

Beast Boy turned into a mouse and crawled into a small crack in the T-Sub. Cyborg ran behind one of the big engines; surprise would be on their side.

Three soldiers walked through. Two soldiers stayed on the left side of the door. Three stayed on the right. The soldiers used their flashlights rather than night vision. They listened to the traffic on the air waves. They made their way slowly to the center of the room, standing back to back. They looked from side to side for anything unusual. They decided that nobody was in the room until somebody checked out the T-Sub. He spotted Cyborg's leg and alerted the others by raising his hand. He motioned for them to stay and began walking into his direction. Cyborg looked at his leg to see a light shinning on it and it was getting closer, and closer. He knew the found him. He cursed under his breath. The soldier was moving closer and closer; he was right on top of him. He inched his way around the engine to get a clear view. He was right below BB.

A green skinned panther jumped out and onto the soldier. Clawing and biting, it slowly made it through his armor. The other soldiers were firing upon this mysterious panther. They were all completely distracted.

Cyborg figured this was the time to strike. He whirled around the engine and trusted himself at a marine before he had time to figure out what was happening. The marine fell over, but was not unconscious.

Suddenly, the green panther turned into a gorilla. The gorilla quickly beat down the marine that was so close to him. He fell over, unconscious. The gorilla turned its attention to the marine that was not under any type of attack. It morphed into a wolf and charged at its unsuspecting prey. The soldiers on the side deceived it was pretty much time to open fire. From the right and left sides came a hail of bullets whizzing all around the room.

Cyborg blasted the soldier he put on the ground with an attack of sonic cannon. He turned and did the same to the soldier next to him. Soon all the gunfire was being directed to him.

Beast Boy moved with the agility that accompanied with being a wolf. As he ran toward his foe he noticed that his enemy had a hole in his armor. He was going to take advantage of this. He quickly morphed into a mouse and crawled inside his armor. Scurrying around, he came across three wires, a red one, a blue one, and a green one. He took hold of the green one and bit at it. The soldier's flashlight went out. He tasted the blue one. The soldier's onboard HUD went out. He tasted the red one. The voltage that ran through that one gave him a hedge shock. His hair stood on end and he began screaming in pain. Luckily this was the good wire. That wire knocked out all power to his supply and he fell over. The soldier hit his head on his glass dome, knocking him out.

Cyborg was being hailed upon by armor piecing bullets that ripped through his plating. He promised himself he wouldn't but he looked at this supply. Power was at 64. He supercharged a blast and directed it toward the left wall were the most people were hiding. He shot the blast. Power was a 34. The blast caused a huge hole in the wall. Two soldiers were knocked out; one died. The soldiers still did not give up their relentless attack. Power was at 27.

Beast Boy ran toward the door. One of the soldiers saw this however and threw a grenade in his direction. It landed next to his feet and exploded, the blast rendered Beast Boy in his human mode, unconscious.

Cyborg saw the fate of the hurt friend and retaliated. He screamed in anger as he fired another super charged blast. Power was a 0. The shot killed the marine behind the wall, but there was still one more left standing. The marine walked over to the fallen warriors and made his report. "We got them sir."

"Excellent, stand by until further instruction."

"Acknowledged."

Robin stood there on the edge of the heli-pad holding his wounds. He had taken a beating before but he was about to let that happen again. He had his plan figured out; out of his utility belt came two Bird-o-rangs and ran straight for Vincent. Vincent ran after him as well and with his newly acquired weapon, he struck. Just then, something he didn't expect happened. Robin block the blow by raising his right arm then punched him with the hand that held the Bird-o-rangs. Vincent winced in pain and jumped back. Both Robin and Vincent just realized something, he can't predict reflexes. Robin kept running at him and kicked upward. Vincent stepped back and dodged the blow and in return provided his own planting Robin's head on the ground. Robin jumped back up before Vincent got in anymore hits and threw his Bird-o-rangs. He blocked it of course but it wasn't his plan for them to hit but to distract him from a hard punch. The punch collided with Vincent before he had a chance to see it coming. Vincent gave Robin a good uppercut that sent him into the air and back down to land. Vincent kicked him aside. Robin got back up. It was getting harder and harder for him to get back up. He ran at him once more. Vincent took up his new pole and struck Robin in the head with it. Robin went down. Vincent took the defeated teen by his shoulders.

"Force do you call him? Tell me where is he." Vincent commanded.

"Ne…never. I'll never tell you."

"We'll just see about that."

Vincent looked straight into Robin's eyes and peered into his thoughts, his memories. He was looking for something, anything that would help him. He found it. He saw a scene with a woman in a red dress. She was very angry green flame coming from her eyes. She addressed some type of mutant that was half-man half-spider. "Keep you legs off of my boy!" She commanded it. Vincent had seen enough. He looked back at his fallen enemy.

"Tell me. Tell me, or I'll kill her."

A look of horror came over Robin's face. "No! I'll tell you. I told him to leave. He's probably is in the city by now."

"If that's the case, then Wraith already has a hold of him. Drat. Oh well, I guess I could help him."

"Please, don't hurt her."

"You heroes are so predictable. There's always a girl. Don't worry she's safe for now, at least from me."

Robin tried to stay conscious. He tried to get up and show him that nobody messes with the Teen Titans, but he didn't have the strength. He only fell back, knock out.

Vincent took out his flip phone and reported in.

"Sir I have Robin."

"Excellent you know what to do."

"Yes sir."

Force extended his arm toward Wraith. He pointed his thumb up and his index finger out as if he was using his hand as a gun. That's exactly what he was doing. Wraith ran at him to try to get a slice, but before he got there he was hit by what felt like a bullet. The energy Force had charged on one of his fingers just hit him in his left shoulder. "Arggh!" He screamed in both pain and anger. He was not going to give up. He kept running and sliced at him horizontally. Force ducked under the blow and gave him a nice uppercut. Wraith's right arm let go of the sword and struck at Force, pushing him back. Force responded to this with another of his five bullets of which only three were left now. This one Wraith dodged with relative ease. He ran to him again and struck at his chest. This time he struck something but it was not anything vital. Force had a cut going down diagonally to his stomach. Force reacted with a swift kick. It hit but it lacked power due to the bleeding parts of him. Wraith kicked him back but his had much more power than Force's. It sent him flying up; in mid-air Force rotated to get a clear view pointed his gun hand at him and shot two shots. The shots only grazed his ankle but hurt all the same. He only had one shot left. Force got back up and attacked him for a change, a change that Wraith was willing to deal with. Wraith's long sword would hit him sooner than Force's fist or feet would so he was confident that he would hit first. He was right. He struck at about the same area the first blow was at deepening the gash in him. Force view blurred; his legs strained to stay up but it was no use. He fell to his knees. Making it look like some sick knighting ceremony. Wraith looked at his prey, his sword inches from his face. He readied himself for the final blow.

"Die…." Forced murmured.

"What was that?"

"DIE!"

A surge of energy came over him, lifting him in the air. It was impossible to control, all of his energy from his mind, his body, his very life, came against one thing, Wraith. The energy struck at him; wave after wave hit him adding many more scars to his collection. It bit. It clawed. It smashed. His ribs cracked his lungs gave out. Both warriors were lying on the ground. Wraith had but one chance to survive, he feverishly took out of his coat pocket a needle, a med-pack. He stuck it into his arm and pushed the strange liquid within. His vitals returned and he was brought into a stable condition. He would sleep until someone rendezvoused with his location.

Force didn't have that luxury. His mind wondered and thoughts faded slowly. He wondered if this was the end. He searched out within his mind for something anything to hold on to, something to focus on. He found it. It was the voice of a woman, Raven's. She repeated the same thing over and over again to herself but it wasn't her usual mantra. Force also felt like it was directed exclusively to him. It was, "Don't die. Don't die. Don't die…"

The room filled with black energy as Raven felt the impossible was true, Ark was leaving this realm. Worry and angst filled her mind as the black energy turned from passive to violent. Waves began to fill the area tearing apart anything within sight. She didn't know what to think or what she thought at the time. In all of this Trigon was not there. Her father wasn't present and she felt he couldn't be present in this. Do not misunderstand though, the room was being torn apart by black energy, but this energy was her own. It tore away at the soldiers in the room and soon it expanded to those out side. For them it was like being in a tornado, or a hurricane. Their bodies were flung around at random, but at the same time there was some order to it. Then anger entered her mind, and with it, Trigon. He eyes doubled and narrowed like a raven's. They turned blood read and her robe was consumed by what looked like tentacles. The stress this put on her was too much. She fell unconscious, and with her the black energy faded. There was but one soldier still left on his feat to tell what happened. Shock, amazed, and dumbfounded he finally found the wits to use the com-link.

"Si….Sir The girls are down."

"Good. Prepare yourself for I am sending support in."

"Don't mind me asking but, where are we going to keep these…things."

"Don't worry; I have prepared prisons each far from each other. Each one will have a way to keep them in check; with the way I've set them up, they can't possibly escape on their own."


	11. Chapter 11

**Renegade:**

**Chapter 11**

Beast Boy was in a daze. The room spun around but he could barely make out a small door. Everything was blurry but he knew one thing, this defiantly wasn't the tower. The more things began to become clear the more the room began to look like some kind of holding cell. It was concrete all four walls, with a metal door sitting in the left corner of the room. On the roof was a small light bulb giving the room a small amount of illumination. The room was sound proof so the only sound he could hear was his nervous breathing. He had to get out of this place, and he knew just how. First he would need a duck, a piece of string and a nuclear detonator; he would use the string to tie the detonator to the duck and have him go into another room and detonate it. It was genius. But he didn't have time to enact the brilliant escape strategy because a T.V. came out of the wall. This caught Beast Boy's attention. He looked straight into its alluring gaze wondering what it might be. Just then, the screen turned on and displayed a swirling black circle around a white background, or was it the other was around. Beast Boy wasn't sure all he knew was that the last time he looked into one of those things he went brain dead. That was exactly what happened.

The jail guard stood in a room of monitors watching the stunned Beast Boy.

"Send my thanks to Mad Mod." He told one of the soldiers

"Yes sir."

Cyborg's systems went online. His red mechanical eye displayed an image of the room he was in. It was a white room with hard walls, brightly lit. He noticed his systems weren't operating at optimum level. He took a look at himself and noticed something terrible. All of his robotic parts were replaced by the equivalent of juck! "How could this happen?" He thought. The very thought of someone taking apart the T-Car made him mad; now somebody has gone and took him apart. He screamed in anger and threw his fists down. He was ticked. The last time he lost one of his body parts a monster ate it. Now some snot nose geek decided to play keep away with his entire body. He thought a moment and tried one simple method, the door. Heck, they can't be perfect so naturally they must have some weakness. He wiggled the handle to see that it was locked, and as he was he couldn't take candy from a baby, much less break down a high-tech security door. He sat down on the floor in sheer frustration.

"This just isn't fair." He complained.

"I can only hope the others are doing just a little better."

Starfire was lying on the ground. That bullet that the soldier shot at her really took a number. She eyes opened slowly and she noticed her body was on the ground. She had had an incredibly bad dream. She and Raven were facing down some evil soldier men, who were real Sorknorb's in her mind, and one hit her. She scanned the room and saw nothing that she recognized.

"This is not my home." She said

Realization struck her hard when she saw the truth.

"It wasn't a dream."

A faint noise came to her, it was music. She listened to the lyrics, which were really depressing. It was like listening to Raven 24/7, the sheer sadness of some of the songs made her cry, and without certain emotions, she couldn't use her powers.

"No!" She told herself. "I must think happy thoughts, Silky, Mustard…Robin."

It was no use. The sadness of what happened to her and the sadness of the song kept her from flying, or blasting her way out. No one could restrain her, but herself. The thought of Robin being dead came to her; the mystery perplexed her. She feared for his and the other Titans life. She had to know. She had to find a way out.

Raven awoke with relative ease. She was her eyes were pried open by loud music. She took a quick look around the room. They chose an interesting pattern, very distracting. It was a strange picture she believed of a Roman design but in it were the random shapes of today's modern art, all made was very distracting, like the music. It was some rock song by some band she cared nothing about. She wanted to exploded with anger and tare the place apart, but couldn't. No matter how hard she tried she neither could meditate nor wipe the area off the map. It was strange. She felt like she should have been angry, but there was the awkward peace that surrounded her. What she didn't know was that it wasn't her peace.

Outside the room sat Wraith, concentrating, hard on keeping Raven peaceful yet distracted. He had the amazing ability to relay empathic messages to people; make them feel, whatever they want to feel. Right now he was focused on keeping the beast from exploding. He could not let her experience any type of emotion, none.

Raven sat inside wondering what was wrong with her and what will become of her friends, and Ark.

Ark laid in a prone position, it felt like he was floating; he was. He opened his eyes and saw that he was in a capsule of Ko-to, a remarkable healing liquid. He too observed his room. Nothing special, a door in the back, equipment monitoring his health, and that dang oxygen mask on his face, he looked through the green tinted liquid to observe a man coming trough, Vincent.

"Finally, I was wondering if you'd ever wake up."

"What am I doing here?" Ark asked half of him knew the other, still waking part had no idea.

"You're my prisoner of course. You took quite a beating. You're lucky to be alive. You should thank me." Vincent loved the irony; Ark absolutely hated it.

"Rather not. Now let me go."

"Sorry I can't, we need you alive."

"For what?"

"It's simple really, You know where the location of other Renegades are. We could really use this information."

"Not telling." Ark told him.

"A shame, looks like she will have to die."

"WHAT! DON'T YOU DARE!" Ark screamed at Vincent angrily.

"Ah, so there is a she. Heroes are so predictable. Now let me see, since you've only had human contact with the Titans it must be one of them. Hmm," Vincent took a random guess, Ark would deny it either way, he must protect both girls, but mostly Raven. "Could it be, Raven." Ark tried to hold it together, he tried to not look suspicious, anger swept him. The thought of him even touching her made him seethe with anger.

"Don't you touch her! If you do, I swear I'll hunt you down like the dog you are, and when I get a hold on you, you will pay! If you thought Wraith was creative with his _art_ just wait till I get trough with you!"

"Really now, last time I saw you, you admitted I was the better, that I would kill you. Have you really gotten so strong that I should be afraid of what _things_ you could do to me? Where did you get such great strength? I assure you, you will not be even touching me anytime soon. See that device on your head. It's called a physic dampener. It lowers your mental capacity to that of a regular man. Besides, I wouldn't kill her. I'd get Wraith to."

Vincent walk out hearing Ark's loud voice curse and shout at him. He didn't care, just as long as he gets what he wants.

In a dark room sat two men. The man behind the towers siege, and the hacker who made it all possible, the dark man handed the hacker a briefcase with an undisclosed amount of money inside.

"Thank you for your business." The man said business like.

"What can I say? You guys pay well."

"Now as for part two of your deal, paragraph two, subsection one, the Titans are alive and Robin is within this building. I can lead you to him."

"Sure."

The two men walked down endless halls approaching the cell Robin was kept at.

The Titan's leader was in disarray. He woke up both stunned and fully alert. His failure shock hard on his conscience, but he wasn't about to let that stop him escape. He looked around his room, no windows, one door, and he was being kept in a traditional jail cell with hard iron bars. He felt around his suit to reveal that they striped him of both his cape and his utility belt. It was going to be hard to get out but he thought he could handle it. The handle of the door jiggled and opened up. Out stepped a dark figure shrouded by darkness so that he couldn't see his face. The mystery man took a few steps closer. He wore a skull mask with a blood red X where his forehead was.

"X?" Robin asked the figure.

"Hello hero." It responded.


	12. Chapter 12

**Renegade**

**Chapter 12**

Unknown to the organization and even to all the Titans but one, a secret was forged. Robin had installed into his communicator a timer of three days; if he was not near it for that amount of time then he was in trouble. The communicator sat there in a pile with all of the other Titan's equipment that the _organization_ hid away. The timer clicked, and clicked, day three since he had been captured. It was time for it to send a signal, to the only person who could help.

Four criminals armed with Uzis approached Batman. He step back, further and further into the corner of their warehouse hideaway. They were threatening him with their guns approaching him. But then, out of nowhere, an anonymous ring sounded coming from Batman's utility belt. It was his cell phone. The thugs were distracted by its sound for just long enough for Batman to make his move. He ran to one of the four and took his gun, slapped it in his face, and thrusted it into his gut. The thug fell unconscious. Batman took his gun and faked out the other criminals. He would never kill, for fear of becoming like one of them, but threatening them was something he had no problem doing. One got bold however and took a pot shot at him, hitting the lamp above his head. Batman took out three Bat-a-rangs and threw them at the criminal's guns. Each one hit the barrel of the gun he aimed at, jamming it completely. The three weren't giving up yet, they threw themselves at Batman, who easily dodged each of their blows and responding with one of his own. Each one soon laid the ground; not one of them was awake. Batman took this opportunity to take a look at the call. He mumbled something to himself about keeping it on vibrate next time. The caller ID said,

_Robin: Teen Titans_

_555-3454_

"_Batman, if you're listening to this it means that I have been either been killed or captured in such a way that I can't get through to the Titans. This is the last resort. Batman, I need your help. The coordinates of my Titan's communicator are being sent to your computer. Please help me."_

Batman left those thugs and headed straight to the Batcave. He ran out of the warehouse startling a young woman who lived in Gotham's Slums. He jumped into his nearby Batmobile and raced away. The drive there was a long one, passing through several depressing gothic architecture and people living on the streets. The oppressing slums of Gotham always reminded what he was fighting for, what he believed in. When he finally got there he made his way to the Supercomputer and punched in the coordinates that the message relayed and brought up a map.

"South Dakota's wooded area. What is he communicator doing all the way out there?"

Batman was in the middle of an extremely important case. The Visor's Protectorate had just declared their "restoration" plan for Gotham. He knew that the Protectorate was dirty, he just needed proof. The Protectorate came to Gotham like a demon dressed as an angel. They slowly increased their power until there was nothing left. They now owned Gotham. He had several clues as to what they _really_ are, but no real leads. He decided that Gotham needed him more and turned on the news to get the daily report.

_Chuck Wood: Today five gang members were involved in a fight which claimed the lives of two of the men, as well as a couple of officers. Luckily there was good news. _

_Pan Ther: The Visor's Protectorate came in and took care of them?_

_Chuck Wood: No, I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switch to Gycho. _

"Sir?" And elderly voice resonated from the Batcave.

"What is it Alfred?" Came the cold voice of Batman.

"You have a dinner party to attend." Alfred replied.

Batman walked up the stairs toward Wayne Manor leaving the Television on.

_Chuck Wood: But speaking of the Visor's Protectorate our Jump City reporter, Ima Newscaster has the scoop of what's happening there._

_Ima: Thank you Chuck. In what can only be described as a savior in the night, The Visor's Protectorate stepped in after the Titans mysterious vanishing act. Most people didn't notice the Titans disappearance until resident super villain "Mad Mod" went on an un-halted crime spree. Finally he was stopped by not the Titans, but the Protectorate. An investigation of Titans Tower is pending to find out where exactly our heroes are. Until that time, the Visor's Protectorate has stepped in to take their place. Their most famous endeavor is likely the Gotham Restoration Project. After it began six months ago crime has decreased by an amazing thirty-five percent. This figure is next to unheard and only arises when a new super hero arrives in a certain city. The Protectorate has now become ingrained with nearly very fasces of Gotham. From law enforcement to politics, their hand can be seen nearly everywhere in Gotham life. While some people disagree with their methods, saying that it leaves too much power to the Protectorate, but according to Visor's Spokesperson, Vincent Canard, "You can't argue with results." I will be here watching developments as they arise here in Jump City but until then, back to you._

Bruce Wayne emerged from his lemozine into the crowd of reporters as he marched down the red carpet to his dinner. Cameras flashed and reporters swarmed the billionaire.

"What is your opinion of today's Visor Party win?" one reporter said.

"What do you have to day about Wayne Enterprises backing of the Protectorate?" Said another

"No comment." was Bruce's anwser to nearly every question

Bruce finally made it inside and looked around. There were a lot of important people celebrating the senatorial win for the Visor's Protectorate. To Batman, it was just another area that they grabbed control of; to Bruce Wayne, it was the party of the year. A man with white hair, wrinkled face, and an eye patch approached Mr. Wayne.

"Mr. Wayne, a pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise Mr…uh"

"My name is S. Wilson of Deathstroke Industries."

"Yes, I remember now. Your company constructs combat droids correct?"

"Yes we do, our most popular model is our Terminator Mark III."

A man in a black suit approached the too. His name was Vincent Canard but his enemies just referred to him as "Vincent."

"Hello Mr. Wayne, thank you for your corporations backing of our project."

Bruce didn't want to support him, but he is not completely in control of Wayne Enterprises and his board of directors could resist the profit in supporting the Protectorate.

"A pleasure," Wayne replied. "Always happy to support anything that will help Gotham."

"Indeed, a toast to the Gotham Restoration Project!"

The two clapped their cups together in approval. Batman saw clearly that he couldn't let the Protectorate have Gotham, not after they just won another seat of power. He would have to hope Robin can survive on his own, but for him, his journey had just begun. His first mission was to investigate this "Vincent Canard," and to uncover any secrets that he may be hiding.


	13. Chapter 13

Renegade

Chapter 13: "The Most Dangerous Game: Part 1"

Robin looked straight into the eyes of his adversary. It being in shock, anger and fear all at the same time. But X didn't share the same look; his was a look of satisfaction. Robin knew this was the face he worn, even though he couldn't see through the mask.

"Surprised?" X said, "Good."

"But how? Why did you come back? I thought we had seen the last of you." The shock of seeing this foe/ally turned him from acumen to a bewildered detective.

"I must admit, I didn't think I'd be in Jump City ever again but the offer those guys gave me was too good to refuse."

"Who gave you this offer?" Robin's mind had gone back to its usual inquisitive style.

"I'm not stupid, hero. Even if I did have any idea who they were, which I don't, I wouldn't be allowed to tell you."

"Okay then, why are you talking to me here? It really doesn't do you any good to reveal yourself here. So why in the world would you?"

"Simple. I always leave a calling card to show where I have been. Seeing as you won't be there to see anything at the tower right now, I decided to meet you in person."

X swiftly turned about, walked through the door, and shut it behind him. Robin sat in bewilderment; his only lead had gone out the door. Now what was he going to do?

X walked rhythmically down the hall and turned a right corner. Continuing down the hall, he finally came to the surveillance room where he was first paid.

A dark man sat in a big office like chair; he turned to greet his associate.

"Greetings"

"Thanks for the money but I really must be leaving."

"I'm afraid that's not going to happen, you still have your end of the bargain to uphold."

"What?" X prayed he was kidding.

"Article 4 sub-section C of your contact clearly states that you will watch the party of the fourth part (Robin) for an undisclosed time."

"You have got to be kidding."

"I don't kid, Mr. X. I do what I'm sent to do, and that is to make sure both parties of the agreement fulfill their stated terms that each party agreed too. You have legal obligation to watch the captive for an undisclosed period of time."

"Legal obligation? Where are you going to find a judge who will make me fulfill my terms?"

"We don't need a judge." X's associate snapped his fingers and on cue, a heavy infantry man walked out of the shadows and into plain view. "We can keep you here."

"You really think this place will hold me don't you?"

"It's working wonders for Robin. I suggest you fulfill your end before we are forced to take aggressive actions."

"There is no way I am baby-sitting your little jail bird. Got that?"

"Very well. Jonathon, if you will escort Red X to his chambers."

The soldier took a step forward and lifted his gun to X's head.

"This place will be hard to escape from I assure you. You have one final chance to reconsider your stance."

X considered his options and decided obeying Mr. Lawyer was better than getting sent up the river by Johnny the Guard over here.

"You got yourself warden."

"Good." Replied Mr. Lawyer "I will leave you too your duties.

The Lawyer and the Guard walked outside into the bright hallway leaving X to do his work. X walked over to the chair that Mr. Lawyer was sitting in and reclined back looking into the glare of the monitors watching nearly every room. What seemed like hours past by as he laid there in his own boredom.

_I can't believe what they did to me! How dare them! I mean, here I am sitting in a stupid surveillance room watching a little birdie walk around in his cell when I could be off stealing something better! _

X's mind continued ranting while his lips stayed silent with the exception of a few curses. He looked into the monitor that watched Robin's cell and drifted into deep thought.

"RAH!" Cyborg yelled as he ran toward me. I could have dodged him, but that would have been counter productive wouldn't it. He slammed me with his right shoulder with a force that felt like getting whacked with a sledgehammer.

"Quickly, now." I tell myself, this was my only chance. My arm wraps around Cyborg's back as I flew toward the teller window. Instantly I placed the bug on him and my job is done.

I flew into the window busting it open. I was conscious but couldn't appear to be so I rest my eyes down and try to look unconscious. I heard a few booms and bangs as those goons I hired for the "Bank heist" dropped down like I expect them to.

A few minuets later I heard silence signaling that my little boy scouts are now knocked-out.

A while later I heard police sirens. Finally, they were here; I was wondering how long it'd take them. They lifted into the car and I fake a grunt of pain. The rumbling of the engine sounded and I'm headed of the jail.

Yeah, like that was going to happen.

I happened to keep a spare "X" bomb where ever I go for escapes such as this one. I take it out of my pocket and my hired hands instantly realize who their boss really is. I place it onto the middle of the police car floor and set the charge. I hugged the left corner and waited for the explosion.

"Boom!"

There it was. I walk to the hole and my teammates look at me in surprise. They had the face of "He's not going to jump, is he?" Leaving those cowards, behind I jumped down into the ground below, I rolled down through to street knowing that a few bumps and bruises will come out of this. Luckily, the car wasn't going very fast because we were in the jam packed entertainment district.

I could hear the car screech to a halt, but by the time the guards have the time to look for me I'm long gone. I ran into a nearby alley and gave my little update.

"X here."

"Is the bug in place?" asked the shadowy acquaintance whose voice I had grown to loathe.

"Yeah, it'll do what I said. Hack in to Cyborg's systems, locate the security codes, send them to me, then drop of him and deactivate."

"Excellent we'll call you when it is time for the tower's siege. Think you can stay occupied while you wait?"

"I'll manage."

I closed the lid on my communicator and walked out of the alley.

"This'll be fun." I told myself.

X smiled at the brilliance of his plan, but now, he only longed to get out. His mind pondered all of the options open to him and he decided to have a little fun at the _organization's _expense. He wanted to get back at them, and he knew just how.

X pushed the button to the intercom on Robin's cell.

"Okay Hero time for a little game, I'll let you out of this room and give you one hour to escape. Call it a head start. If you're not out by that time, well, we'll see. Let this little game of cat and mouse begin"

Robin's ears snapped to attention at the sound of his offer. One hour, this wouldn't be easy but Robin thought he could handle it. The door to his cell plopped open and Robin walked out. Hanging on the wall was a pair of lock picks that Robin affectionately named "Bird Picks."

"One more thing," X said. "At certain points throughout the building I've laid out pieces of your equipment. Let's call these places 'checkpoints.' They'll be placed in areas preceding a place you'll need them, like you need your picks for this door. By the time you're out you'll have all your stuff, but that's if you get out of course. Better get moving hero, clock's ticking."

Robin grabbed for his lock-picks and rushed to the door. Robin calmly lifted his pick and placed it in the door feeling for the picks. Within no time, about twenty seconds, he had picked it open and was on his way out.

X simply thought of it as a game of cat and mouse. Robin looked at it as Rainsford and Zaroff's "Most Dangerous Game."


	14. Chapter 14

Renegade

Chapter 14: "Out of the Stocks and into the Guillotine"

A lone warrior stood upon a hillside overlooking an old Japanese castle. He was a young man, definitely not even out of his teens. He had short black hair that seemed to flow through the wind. His eyes were a cold, sharp, blue depicting a man who was serious about who he was and what he had done. He was dress in a black suit covering his whole body; it was the traditional garb of a ninja. Around his back hung a katana nestled safely within its sheath. Placed upon his hip was a to-to, the eastern equivalent of the western dagger. Around his waist sat a belt containing several throwing stars, each one sharp enough to cut through man. The young man stared into forbidding figure of the ancient fortress and recollected his sacred mission. This was his honor; this was his duty.

He was nothing but a rumor to the majority of his people, a faceless vigilante sentenced to his exile by night, a shadowy ghost whose name was feared in villainous circles, loved in civilian ones. He was the bedtime story parents told their children to quell their fears. His name… was Bushido.

Whispers of a heinous crime were heard by many a man, whispers that Bushido decided to investigate. After tireless work and many fruitless leads he finally found someone who would give him information. The person was remarkably co-operative and shared many of the dark secrets that he had known. (After he had a knife placed to his neck of course) He confirmed many of Bushido's suspicions. The verified rumors stated that a green skinned man was taken to Chuni Inc.'s newest location, a refurbished imperial palace; they brought this palace into the modern age, giving it electricity, plumbing, and a state of the art security system. The latter of the improvements was the one that concerned Bushido the most.

Our young hero sat upon that lonely hillside overlooking his prey; it was time to go to work. He slowly crept down to the forest's edge and crouched down to where he was nearly on his belly. The full moon shined brightly upon his veiled face as he sat there waiting, waiting for something he knew he would see. A guard walked around the corner toward the north entrance, where Bushido rested. The sentry made his way to the front doors, stopped, and then took a casual look around to find anything out of the ordinary. After his search ended devoid of fruitaition he picked up what looked like a radio, no doubt he was about to make his report. Bushido could make out what the guard was saying but not the reply.

"Jason here…Yeah all seems pretty quiet on this end…Why are we even on this high an alert? ...Yeah I guess your right, whatever guest we have here must be pretty important…Do you have any idea who this guy is? ... I know I shouldn't ask it's just if this guy is making me pull fifteen hours of work I'd like to know who he is…I know, I know. I'm not trying to question orders…Yeah if Vincent is here you know it's important…I'm beginning to wonder if all this security is just a bunch of paranoia. I mean, I doubt anyone is ever going to come…Well _just in case_ somebody comes next time; I'm taking my vacation time then…Right, right, Back to work. Got it."

The guard put down his radio and turned the other corner giving Bushido just the chance he needed. He rushed down to the door to try to make a quick infiltration. He grabbed for a doorknob but none was present; in its place was a retinal scanner, one that the guard surely had access to.

Bushido's keen ears picked up the faint sound of feet tapping upon the wet mud. _How could he have finished his rounds so soon? _Whatever the case the sound of footsteps began to get clearer and louder so he had to act fast, he couldn't retreat to woods before that idiotic patrol guard caught him, and he could run around the corner because that would only delay the guard finding him. Bushido began a desperate search to find a hiding place. His search led him to examine the ceiling where he found a large pipeline. It must have been from where the added the plumbing or maybe it contained electric wires. Whatever the case he didn't have time to unravel the pipeline mystery, he grappled onto the pipe with his arms and whipped his legs up to it and hugged the pipe like it was his best friend.

Just then, the sound of footsteps reach an all time high as the guard walked around to the north entrance. He once again walked over to the door, stopped, and then casually looked around for anything out of the ordinary. Bushido prayed he wouldn't look up; whatever he did he could not look up. It wasn't fair. Here one of the greatest ninjas was right below a simple guardsmen and he could do nothing but sit and pray he wasn't found out. The guard looked straight into the lights that were precisely hung to give the right amount of light; then, he looked up. Bushido could see him squinting straight at him. His eyes squinted further to try to make sense of this strange image that appeared before his eyes. The guard could barely see into the shadows of the pipeline after just looking into the lights, but he could see enough to tell that there was absolutely no one holding on to the pipes.

"Whatever." The guard sighed and continued on his way. Bushido got lucky. He could have easily been killed right then and there. After the sound of footsteps faded from his ears, Bushido gracefully jumped down. Bushido sighed a sigh of relief. He pressed his back against the walk and slowly made his way to the edge the tower's north side. He turned his head around to look at the east side. Similar architecture, door in a similar spot, not to mention the similar retinal scanner, but one thing was different; on the ceiling one of the lights were missing. This gave a 6x6 meter around of unadulterated pitch black darkness. Bushido would use this to his advantage. He ran over to the dark spot, pressed his back against the wall, and waited for that pathetic guard to walk around.

After about five minuets he came back around. _Great, now he takes his time._ He strode in his tired, casual walk to the door and repeated the process of looking around that Bushido had seen him do on the north side, and almost mechanically, he walked under light after light until he got to that one dark spot, then stopped.

_Come on. Come on. Just take five more steppes. _

For some reason he was afraid of this spot since the light went out about four hours ago. Every time he went under it, it seemed like someone was going to jump out and grab him. He took a step. It was of course just childish fear he reminded himself, nothing could really be there. He took a step. What could be lurking there? A ninja? He laughed at the idea. He took a step. "A ninja. Ha!" Bushido could hear him give a fake laugh to comfort himself. He took a step.

_Just one more, just take one more step._

He took a step.

_Bingo!_

He grabbed for his to-to and whipped his body around the guard's; he put his knife to the guard's throat and used the other hand to put him into a hold. Before the poor guy knew it, he was helpless.

"What the-"The guard muttered

"Quiet." Bushido replied to the guard's exclamation.

"Who are you?"

"Santa Claus."

"No you're not. You're- ugh!" Bushido tightened the grip on his hostage.

"Yes I am and you're my little helper. Now I need you to walk over to that retinal scanner so I can give your friends a few _presents_."

"Only if you let me go first."

"You're not in a bargaining position, now are you?"

"Ughh!"

"Over there. Now."

"Yes _Santa_."

Santa led his little elf over to the retinal scanner, and the elf complied like he said. The door was now unlocked. Bushido gave his friend a good swift hit in the back of the head to knock him out. No need killing him, not after he was so compliant. Bushido hid the body in the ominous dark spot and walked quietly toward the now open door. Bushido smirked; getting in was a serious pain for him.

_Now let's see how bad these boys have been. I'm going to need a lot of coal. _


	15. Chapter 15

Renegade:

Chapter 15

Ark laid within his gelatinous cell completely unconscious. This sort of thing had been happening for a while; he would slip in-and-out of consciousness and most times he awoke to a lonely building, in a lonely room, in a lonely cell. The other times he was stirred by the sound of tapping on his glass casing by either Wraith or Vincent. Ark liked more when Wraith interrogated him because he knew that Raven was safe during that time, but through the loneliness he had grown to accept since he first left the _organization _and the interrogations he had no peace, not even in his slumber. During this time he was plagued by horrific nightmares of Raven being tortured or maimed. He saw Wraith do what he does best and it made him want to sob, vomit, and destroy every thing in sight all at the same time. Ark's eyes shot open as the image of Raven's torture flung him into a status of keen alertness. Cold sweat and tears mixed with the Koto healing liquid giving it a salty taste.

_Raven, please be alive. Please be alive,Raven. I…I love you Raven and if Wraith does anything to you I swear I will take him down. Please don't be gone; I could never take losing you. I could plant a field of roses but they wouldn't compare to your beauty. I could taste the finest honey but your melodious voice will always be sweeter. I could look into the morning sun but my love for you shall forever burn brighter. I love you Raven. I love you._

The door rattled as a dark figure immediately identified as Wraith ventured forth. Ark knew it was time for another interrogation; he also knew he couldn't take the fear of what might happen to Raven much longer.

"You know why I'm here so I'll skip to the point. Tell us Cross-fire's location and your girlfriend will be safe."

"Cross-fire is dead."

"So you are going to spout that lie once more. Look, I don't care how convincing his death was to the others but to me it was more fake the reality television. So just spit it out before I get nasty.

This got under Ark's skin. It always got under his skin whenever they threatened Raven; when that happened he had a tendency to lash out but this time he held his tongue.

"Cross-fire is dead."

"So you want to play it the hard way? Fine, guards bring her in."

Two shock-troopers emerged from the hall-way holding a bruised, battered, and beaten Raven. The shock on Ark's mind would be equal to a father losing his entire family at once. It took a few seconds to register as he looked into those glazed, drugged eyes, that injured frame, and the realization that it was all his fault. Before Ark had a chance to threaten those responsible, Wraith revealed a vial of some sort of red liquid out of his jacket.

"Have you ever tasted demon blood Renegade? I assure the taste is to die for, or at least kill. I think I should comfort you so here's a little crunchy nugget for you, when she was crying out in pain, out of all the things she could have said she cried out your name. Don't you feel special?"

Ark stumbled for a sentence to say and could only come up with, "You're a monster."

"No," Wraith replied in his usual grim tone, "I'm an artist. Now, if you want me to complete my masterpiece then by all means, don't tell me Cross-fire's location, but if you want he to live then you better talk and talk now because my patience has all but run out."

Ark considered his options and didn't see much that was left. Should he trade in one life for another, slay a brother to keep a lover or vise versa. It seemed whatever he did there would be blood on his hands. He finally made up his mind.

"Okay, I'll tell you."

In the heart of a certain city there stood a large office building that seemed to erect a tense feeling. Businessmen would be consumed with worry while passing by this building on the way to a more peaceful occupation. It was the place little children would cry as their mother drove by then shut up when they went past it. This single structure made its occupants work and work hard. Signs like "Authorized Personnel Only" and "Employees Only" that regular trouble-makers would interpret as "Go In Already" and "Who Cares They Probably Have Candy" translate them into the message they were intended to be. Third wheels became busybodies and monkey wrenches became masterwork gears that meshed into the magnificent corporation that it was known to be. The owner of this establishment didn't know why people worked twice the work or why they didn't enter the places they weren't supposed to as and didn't care for that matter as long as they adhered to the system he had set out and as long as nobody went into the "Authorized Personnel Only" areas nobody would find anything he was trying to hide. It was now well into the night as the new moon gave off its usual darkness. Under this cover of night, Batman sought to enter one of these "Employees Only" areas.

Batman crouched upon the top of building over looking his target recalling just how he got there and what he was going to do in those "what if" circumstances. After the dinner party in Gotham City he investigated the home of the newly elected Gotham senator whose computer reveal a connection with him and the president of the Czerka Weapons Corporation. Batman thought this lead was clear enough to track so he investigated this link finding out that they had covered their tracks well as he could find few leads that didn't end in dead ends but the detective persevered and eventually found all he needed from the horses mouth. The senator seemed to have taken a trip to the same building that the Dark Knight went to and it seemed to be the most potent opportunity to find out all he knew, which it was. Not only did he give all the details on the Gotham Restoration Project, he revealed some clues as to what was happening at Jump City. Batman found these leads disturbing and his worries of Robin acted up again. So he decided to track the Titans down but was unable to find their locations. Instead he had Intel that a "Renegade" that had connections to the Titans was being kept as Czerka HQ so he thought he might pay the jail bird a visit.

Via a pipeline, Batman slid down the face of the building and onto the cold pavement below. He surveyed the next to abandoned parking lot which held anywhere from twenty to twenty-five cars. He snuck over to a cluster of cars but didn't take the risk of touching them because car alarms these days will go off if you so much as look at them in the wrong way, and when they do go off it's loud enough to wake up a man twenty miles away in a sound proof room. He risked a peek over the various trucks, cars, and SUVs to find that there weren't any guards around, just motion sensitive cameras that would catch him on tape. He timed their responses to find that there was a thirty second window for him to barge through the front door, but only an idiot would do that. Instead he noticed a nineteen seconded window that would allow him to scale the walls. He did just that. After the last camera made its pass he rushed all the way to the wall and to out his grappling hook, launched it up, and climb into an area that the cameras wouldn't notice him, all with three seconds to spare.

He climbed and climbed until he reached an open window and jumped inside. It was an office with a window depicting a cubicle work space. Though the window he could spot a lone worker tapping on a computer keyboard, probably either trying to doing a huge workload and get ahead of his fellow works or trying to finish up a project that he had put on hold until the last minuet. On the wall there was a list of the "Employees of the Month" and he's pretty mug was pictured about four months back confirming that the former assumption was the correct one. He would have to find a way to get past this project crazed workaholic.

Ark wallowed in his guilt. Cross-fire had been like a brother to him back when he was in the _organization_ and left before he did. In fact, it was his leaving that eventually led our hero to question the orders given to him. How could he do something like that do his best friend? On the other hand if he didn't sacrifice Cross-fire's life then Raven would have died and he would have never let that happen, never. He felt as though he only choices were both kill, or kill and the debate over which choice to pick raged within his head. The professors began with their opening points and began their "discussion" (which was a nice word for argument). This time neither side would relent, neither philosophy had room to compromise to the other. He was able to know only one this for sure: What ever choice he picked, he would still be a murderer. It was just a question of who he would have murdered.


	16. Chapter 16

Renegade: Chapter 16

Red X sat in a computer chair staring into the glow of the security screens. He was having fun watching Robin escape, lots of it. He had to admit, Robin was near as, or exactly equal to his skills. This was something that X would never, never admit normally. He gave Robin a little edge; he set all the monitor screens in the building, save the ones in his room, to an infinite loop so he couldn't be caught on film. Of course he didn't tell the Boy Wonder this; it was interesting enough to watch someone avoid a camera that wasn't sending any data, of course it was more fun to watch someone try to avoid detection in an area with absolutely no cameras. Alas, the jailbird had better things to do than play imaginary games so he was stuck with the latter 'interesting' situation.

Meanwhile Robin had his hands full, dodging patrols, motion detectors, and hacking pass codes. It had been a tough journey but he wasn't going to give up just then. He had already acquired a fine assortment of weapons including: flash-bang grenades, smoke grenades, bird-a-rangs, and a specialized Robin mask that gave him Night and Thermal Vision, but with all the gadgets it was still a difficult job. Luckily, this was Robin that we were talking about so he has another edge there. He was going through a routine hall-way check which consented of pressing his back against the wall, turned and took a look to see if it was clear, and then either avoid or take out any nearby guards. What he noticed was a guard standing anywhere from ten-to-twelve meters from him walking toward the other end of the practically empty corridor containing only a single utility closet.

"Okay, I don't have time to sneak up on him before he leaves the hallway which may put me in a vulnerable state on the other side. To add to that, I don't exactly have the patrol path of every guard so his next walk-around may lead him my way, but I doubt he would have to check on the closet."

Armed with this revelation, Robin crept to the utility closet closing the door ever so quietly. He took a look around his new surroundings. Inside there were: brooms, mops, dustpans, plungers, Robin's PDA, and other assorted cleaning items.

"Wait." Robin reached his arm toward his next item and placed it on his right arm where it belonged. This little gadget allowed him to store and archive files and access them whenever, it also doubled as a second communicator to Titans Tower where from inside someone could digitally send files to and from his PDA.

"He always hides these things in the most inconspicuous of places." Robin murmured under his breath. The sound of foot steps came to Robin's ear reminding him of why he was even in that cramped closet, to wait for the guard. His feet swiftly passed by the closet door and stopped not far behind. Then Robin heard the sound of him turning around and continuing his patrol.

"Wait for it. Wait for it."

Robin could hear the guard not a few feet from him.

"Now!"

Robin's arm swung open the door hitting the poor guard in the face. Confused, the guard tried to put two and two together.

"What happened? First I'm turning around to continue my patrol and the next thing I know I'm on the ground with some kid looking over me. Wait a sec, that's no kid. That's the prisoner!"

The patrolman stood to attention and planned to shoot the young teen square in the fore-head, but thankfully his plans were cut short by Robin's fist. The guard, now realizing _why_ guns aren't useful in close quarters combat took his finger off the trigger and wailed the rifle in his hand like a club. The inaccurate blows didn't take to Robin where he responded with his own, more accurate attacks. After a few strikes to the head, and a sweeping kick, the guard was back on the ground and this time he won't be getting up.

Robin noted that his sleeping friend's body should be disposed of or another guard might come across it. He lifted his bulky frame on his shoulders giving a grunt of pain as he laid him in the nearby utility closet. Robin figured that if he was lucky sleeping beauty would lay there anywhere from five to twenty minuets. He hoped he was lucky.

Robin continued his hallway routines the next hallway down. Pressing his back against the wall he slowly made his way to the corner and looked around. This one wasn't as empty; there were about five doors with two on the left and three on the right. One of the ones on the left was open showing a single guard casually looking into a panel of computer screens watching for any movement. Robin was fortunate; he seemed so interested in the screens that as long as he doesn't just scream "I escaped" he could just creep by. Robin ordered his steps one by one making sure he didn't land on a stray Cheeto or any other object that would make noise. After getting past the surveillance guy he decided to try one of the other doors. He opened the third one from the right which revealed a dark, dark room. Robin flipped on his Night-Vision mode and walked into the room. It was somewhat of an office room, computers, chairs, desks, etc. The walls were bare of anything save the north wall which had another door.

Robin checked the computers for any useful files that may be contained within them. After finding his search fruitless he snuck over to the north side door and opened it wide. What was inside was disturbing, a commando in Night-Vision goggles with a rifle trained on Robin's forehead.

Before he could react, the commando fired his round off sending Robin's reflexes through the roof. He quickly pulled his body to the left side and watched as the bullet grazed past his head. Robin jumped to the side and quickly hid behind one of the desks. Apparently he wasn't being stealthy enough either that, or the guard was another psychic.

"Come now little boy, I only want to play with you." The crack commando taunted the Titan's leader into coming out. Instead with the situation of a guard at his heels, a room blanked into complete darkness, and Night Vision gave him a witty idea. He reached for his utility belt and grabbed out of it a flash-bang grenade. After pulling the pin he sent it flying over the edge of the desk toward the guard's feet. He plugged his ears, closed his eyes and waited for the boom.

Perhaps this is the most appropriate time to talk about the properties of flash bang grenades. What they essentially do is both blind and deafen an opponent by emitted a loud sound and an extremely bright light. It is so powerful in fact that in a well lit room you would become blind with the last image that you saw burned into your eyes for a few seconds; also, you would only be able to hear a ring for even more time. Now I'm sure you can imagine what it would do to someone in the dark whose eyes have adjusted to it but the chaos that the guard gets is more-so due to his goggles. So it was safe to say that after the 'boom' he was vulnerable enough for Robin to put the beat down on him with impunity. After about five seconds of rapid punches that high and mighty commando was on the ground.

Robin decided that exploring that area was a little too dangerous for his taste and walk back out the door into the aforementioned hallway. The man in the monitor room was still there checking up on everything on the screens completely absorbed. He was about to try another door when a wound of terror came to his eyes via a walkie-talkie in the monitor room.

"The prisoner has escaped! I repeat, Robin has escaped! He could be anywhere in the building sound the alarm!"

The man in the monitor panicked looking around at his surroundings. He looked toward the hallway and saw a man in red and green tights with a black mask on looking like he was about to strike. The guard grabbed for his walkie-talkie and alerted those nearby.

"Prisoner is at section eight, corridor three. Request Backup! Request Ba"

His announcement was interrupted by a dropkick by Robin but it wasn't fast enough. The hallway erupted in a frantic haze and frenzied guards lifted they're weapons at Robin the Boy Wonder. A swarm of bullets whizzed past into the room and others were stopped by the timely action of Robin closing the door. He quickly threw the security lock on and began a search for a way out. He could find nothing so he decided to take a look at the computer for schematics. He found what he needed but also an interesting file entitled: Starfire.loc. He double clicked on this file revealing a map showing how to get to Starfire from Robin's location. He uploaded both into his PDA and began to look at the schematics for a way out.

"That one's for you hero," Came X's voice over the intercom "Just because you've been such a good sport, though I would suggest getting those Merry Men off your back before you look for Maid Marian, Robin Hood."

"I'm beginning to hate his puns." Robin admitted, though he couldn't deny that X was right. They were surely about the blow the door down with explosives and he'd rather pass on being in the room when that happened. He studied that schematics and found that air ducts ran through the building and one ran into the monitor room.

"It's cliché," Robin confessed. "But it works."

So there he went like some kind of Metal Gear Solid cliché. There were many things on his mind, like how the other Titans were doing, how to rescue Starfire and the mystery of his captors as well, but staying alive was at the top of the list at that time.


	17. Chapter 17

Renegade

Chapter 17

I look around at my surroundings, nothing real special. There's an info desk and what looks like a map behind it so I guess I'm in the front lobby. I prance on up to it and see that nobody is there. I take a look at the map to find the room that I've come here for, hmmm, third floor, and room 154. I study the architecture of the walls and just gaze at their historical and cultural significance. No matter how hard they try to make this castle into some official place of business they'll never be able to release the ceremonial feel. I take another look at the map to make sure I know where I'm going and begin my journey. Carefully, I check the halls for any patrolling guards but see that it's mostly been left alone. I can't blame them for keeping a lose security on floor one, that would look awfully suspicious to any ninja style super-heroes like me. I travel down the hall and notice that fewer and fewer lights are on throughout this area. Makes sense though, most people turn off their lights to conserve energy.

The sides of the hallway are lined with doors, from accounts to lawyers this place has every thing a western money-hog would want, not that I have anything against the Western World. I locate the door to the stair-way and open it wide; the lights are still darkened on the floors of the stairs telling me that this floor is really just for show. Even still I can't run the risk of some lonely janitor catching me so I keep my steps soft and slow. I come upon the door for the second floor; the lights are on here. Keeping my self concealed is going to be a tough one here as my black suit really doesn't blend with the white walls. Through the window I can see two armed guard conversing casually about their daily lives or something similar. One is large and burly, the stereotypical bodyguard type. The other is small and slim but seems to know how to hold his gun well enough to prove that he is an excellent marksman. The two stand outside and look like they are about to go in. If they do, this could prove to be messy.

Luckily, Mr. Bodyguard motions to their stomach and walks off to probably get a quick bit. The other is rolling his eyes and follows him out, leaving me to exit from this dark place. I wait a few minuets before finally opening the door making sure that they'll be gone a while. After all, it would have been stupid of me to walk out the door when they just went to a vending machine 'round the corner. This room also resembles a type of meeting room. A window separates the outside to another room wherein a nurse or another medical professional would give out medication like candy. You know, I could really go for candy right about now. I again check to corner to see if my friends were having a short visit but it looks as if they decided to have a full course meal. I walk down the opposite hall until it came to fork. I check around both sides to locate any potential threats. One guard on the right side, and three on the left, this will be trouble. They beginning walking down and apparently decide to check my hallway.

Crap, one turns the corner and sees me. The expression on his face is priceless; his jaw hit the floor and his eyes got wide enough to cover the whole building. Before he can change this expression (or lift his weapon) I take a throwing star out of one of their pouches and let it lose. He drops down to his knees and then lands of the floor face down with the throwing star implanted in his forehead. The others definitely are worried. They start shouting, "Show yourself." with their weapons in the air; after they all run into my hallway they unload a few rounds, rounds that nearly blew my head off. I jump from wall to wall until I reach one of them. He falls quickly after I unsheathe my katana and slice diagonally down his torso. I don't have time to take the next one down with another slice as the goons are still unloading bullets. I start circling them to both protect myself from gunfire and confuse them. One lost track of me long enough for me to grab him, take out my Japanese knife, put it to his throat, and threaten to kill him if any of the others decide to shoot.

The room drops into dead silence. There was one guy left to shoot me and he was so shocked that he literally dropped his weapon and started pleading for not his friends, but his life. I whack my hostage in the head hard enough to put him into a deep sleep and do the same to the other guard. They'll be okay, a couple of bruises and bad memories but nothing that a little therapy wouldn't fix. Before reinforcements could arrive I quickly exit out that corridor and into another.

This was the worst part of the job. I guess you could call it justice, but that really wouldn't be appropriate in my mind. My dreams are filled with my great accomplishments while my nightmares are like what just happened. Those men were probably just following orders, and at least one of them I would expect to have a wife and maybe some kids. They weren't part of this big conspiracy that I was uncovering; they were just ignorant patrolmen doing their job, like I was. I sigh heavily as I listen to the footsteps of other guards going to check on they're fallen comrades. I should act quickly before someone has the common sense to activate the alarm. I run down the halls into a corridor which houses the elevators. I press the up button and wait for it to beep. The elevator farthest to the right dings and opens up. I step inside and press the 3. The doors close after a while and I'm on my way up. I stand there and wait for the doors to open again which was, if you know anything about elevators, generally the signal that it was time to get off. Sure enough it opens and I exit.

I am _so_ lucky. After I get out the alarm sounds off as the halls start beeping and glowing red. I hear the clamor of guards shouting orders to one another but nobody seems to be walking my way. I check the corners and see that I'm clear. I walk a few steps until I see my door, number 154. I turn the handle, open it up, and walk inside. It gave off a nice cozy feeling. It all feels quite friendly even though I know the scenery is just adding to the illusion of an office building that was at one time, a majestic castle. A modest bookshelf sits in the corner housing various titles and names of different books, none of which I'm close enough to read. On my left is a coffee maker sitting on top of a small shelf. In the middle was an oak office desk that would probably belong to some kind of executive. A monitor rested on the top of the desk not emitting any light which meant it was off, and, looking at the monitor, was the man that I was looking for. He looks official, important, and to the public he is. He is dressed in a blue suit and a tie depicting a baseball game. His name was Vincent.

Vincent turns his attention from his monitor and starts looking me straight in the eyes.

"Your late." He tells me.


	18. Chapter 18

Renegade

Chapter 18

Raven's eyes peeked open as her consciousness returned. She looked around the room and discovered that she was in the same room, in fact everything was the same except for one thing: She was in pain.

Her sore body tried to lift itself off the ground, an act which her body refused to do, but she wouldn't have any resistance from her body. She forced herself off the ground grunting at the pain coming from every joint in her body. What had caused her this pain? She thought desperately for the answer to this nagging question that took prominence over all other thoughts in her mind. She looked back into her mind for something, anything, an image, a memory, something. She saw herself battered and beaten held by two guards who lifted her off the ground without fear of her fighting back. In front of her was a pale man with a large black jacket facing another man in a glass cell which she identified as Ark. She was surprised at his reaction to her condition, very surprised. When the pale man threatened to do more Ark quickly relented and told him whatever information the pale man needed. Strange, she wondered why he was so worried about her. Looking further into her mind she noted that she had recorded a message from Ark, a message of his private thoughts, a message of his love.

Love, that was something Raven couldn't understand. Love was something that she couldn't entertain, ever. It was at least partially an emotion and emotions were something she disconnected herself with. To her, it was nothing more than an animalistic need for another person to 'share their life with.' Why would someone want to share their life with someone else if they can do fine on their own? But there was something aside from love that befuddled her mind even more: Why would someone love her?

She was dark. She admitted that putting creepy, a word that she loathes to no end, is a nice way of putting her. She didn't consider herself beautiful or graceful in fact just the opposite. That is not to say that she didn't think of herself as ugly. She just never thought of her as beautiful. She began thinking about Ark, this man whose mind was fixed upon her. He was…what you would call sweet from what she knew; of course there was someone else that had manipulated her feelings. But Malchior never did something that Ark did: sacrifice. He put himself in harm's way for her and the other Titans and at least she should regard him as 'friend.' At most, she didn't want to think about it.

At the same time Ark thought of Raven, entertaining his infatuation with visions of her beauty, her grace, and her wisdom. He could at least take some solace in knowing that she was alive if anything. Ark looked up at the ceiling of his small cell, visualizing the night sky. He had memorized the patterns of the sky and was able to make it out with surprising detail. In his mind's eye he viewed the heavens when one constellation caught his interest, Orion. Upon Orion hung his belt of three stars; to Ark, the one on the left was him, to the right was Rave, and they would not be considered linked were it not for the one in the middle: the one called Love.

Batman bided his time until the workaholic moved from his desk; then he would reveal himself. The man rubbed his eyes as if he were going to erase them from existence. Several times he got up for a caffeinated drink but he still had to fight off the torture that is fatigue. Batman couldn't risk and slip up's so he waited for the man to quit working completely. After a while, he was open to compromising and decided to make his move when he got up for more than 1 minuet. The workaholic got off his rear and headed toward the hallway and in the direction of a sign that said: Bathroom. At that time, Batman made his move.

First, he decided if the man had any useful information on that computer he was typing on with no end in sight. He pulled up the files he currently had active in his toolbars. One was a report to his superior; it was too lengthy to read before he got back so he uploaded it onto his PDA or rather his BatDA, BDA for short. One of the other conversations was a conversation between him and what he assumed to be his friend over an instant messenger. He pulled the conversation to the top with the correct assumption that the other user was the one who started the conversation.

OffBeat Temp0: Hey man, What's up?

Singinmatt13: Nothing much, just finishing the report on the Titan's Tower siege.

OffBeat Temp0: Really? How did it go?

Singinmatt13: I was the only member of my battalion to survive. That Raven is tough.

OffBeat Temp0: Wait, Raven you mean you were beat by a girl?

Singinmatt13: It was confirmed that she was half-demon.

OffBeat Temp0: Yeah, but a half-demon. GIRL.

Singinmatt13: Would you just shut up?

OffBeat Temp0: Sorry man. Anyway, while you were being beat up by a coughgirlcough Me and my troop took the remaining bunkers in Azerbaijan.

Singinmatt13: Isn't that all that remained in that backwater country?

OffBeat Temp0: Yep, we now control the country in all areas, Politicians, military, etc. They all belong to us

Singinmatt13: Good, that's one more nation under the _organization's _fold.

These details disturbed Batman. Though it was only a third world nation whatever or whoever this _organization _was controlled an entire country. He would have to follow this rabbit trail to the source. He couldn't reveal any of his evidence until then. He exited the program and began he journey to where Ark was being kept. After a hallway or two he made it to where there were two rooms left. He stood in front of the door which the area schematics he picked up on the Batcomputer told him to go to. Past this office area would be where the Renegade was being kept.

At the same time Ark was testing something out. He had tried to use his telekinesis to get him out but the physic inhibitor was too strong. He tried his amateur abilities in wind magic but he was too weak of a mage. That's when he had the ingenious idea to mix the two. With the flow of the wind and the matter manipulating abilities of telekinesis he would surely be able to get free of his bonds. The combined powers of the two abilities gave a sort of flow to his powers, with his familiarity of the properties of telekinesis and the natural flowing nature of wind gave it a rhythmic grace. He focused his abilities which took something that could only be described as being 'mentally ambidextrous' he applied enough pressure to the keyboard on the control panel to his cell to press the keys. After many failed attempts he pressed them in the right sequence releasing him from his glass surroundings. The strange healing liquid flowed onto the tile floor resting upon it. Ark took off the inhibitor and walked toward the door.

Batman opened the door and immediately felt a sharp tug on his neck. He looked up to see a pale man with long black hair staring right at him. He had the appearance of a dead man whose death had been recent. Were it not for the fact that he was confidently standing up he would have mistook him for a corpse. The pale man firmly held a large straight sword that was trained on Batman's neck.

"Batman, isn't it?" The pale man said.


	19. Chapter 19

Renegade:

Chapter 19

X was having fun. Watching the view screens, listening to the radio chatter, it was all very exhilarating. Robin was some piece of work; somehow he managed to get as far as he did without too much trouble. Now, after he triggered the alarm things were a different story but up until then his performance was strictly speaking, a masterpiece. But Robin was only part of what was happening. X had manipulated the events of this prison to set him free, and watch the fun. It was him who deserved the credit; of course, he wasn't going to take it. But even so, he was his brilliant mind who found the perfect path of revenge. How dare that pompous little twit try to make him watch Robin do nothing but sit and rot! Why, just restricting him in that manner would make him feel like it was torture. It wasn't fair and it just plain wasn't right. So what if it was in his contract? They tried to trick him into become their slave for an 'undetermined time' which probably meant until his death. There was no way he was being kept prisoner so his employers should just get that trough they're thick skull. X sat there watching his entertainment half amused, half flustered by the thoughts that roared in his head.

_How the heck did I get into this position anyway?_ He thought

It was night which was the usual time for burglars to make they're move. One would think _more_ guards would be posted in the dead of night to catch any wannabe thief who dares to tread on their precious ground. But sadly, or fortunately depending on who you are, this was not the case. X had busted through every security measure that the Intelligence Facility could ever put up against him and triumphed. He was in North Korea for a legit job this time, at least in American eyes. The North Koreans had recently built a nuclear weapon, this everyone knew. What they didn't know is when or where it would be used or even if they planned to use it at all, that's where X came in.

The American government was worried because at that time they were clearly on North Korea's hit list and they really didn't want to get hit. They're only hope; send in someone who would not be affiliated with the government to find out what they planned to do with their new little toy. They dug up X who was more than happy to their dirty work. The offer they gave him was just too hard to refuse.

The offered him amity from his past crimes if he would do this one thing for his country. Well, it was either that or goes to jail for his past crimes so Red X decided to do what they wanted. He boarded a plane to Iraq for the reason of arriving at North Korea from a less suspicious country than directly through the U.S. From there he boarded another plane to North Korea and after pulling some strings he was in their Intelligence Facility with their plans for their new toy on his way out when something unexpected happened.

X was running straight for the double doors leading to freedom when out of nowhere a man appeared. The first thing X noticed about this man is that he wasn't Korean. His complexion was European but was tan enough to be mistaken as Israeli to the untrained eye. His eyes were black reflecting the mystery of his entry. His rugged face only added to the awkwardness of his arrival.

"Hello X." The mysterious man said.

"Who are you?" X asked

"Call me Vincent. Now, I believe you hold in your hand secrets that your employers want. I have my own secrets I would like you to uncover."

"Not interested." X didn't talk much to mysterious figures that went 'bump' in the night. He quickly grabbed for his bo-staff in his utility belt and drew it toward to the man called Vincent. He had reason to knock this guy senseless: 1.) He caught him in the act of something illegal. 2.) He's obviously not nice and may have some sort of bounty for turning him into the authorities. 3.) X was startled. People do stupid things when they're startled.

"Yeaah!" X ran and sliced at the unarmed man who easily dodged the blow with the grace of a cat and replied with a kick that sent X flying with the agility of a hippo shot out of a cannon.

"I would advise giving up. I need you alive for the job."

X wasn't listening. He ran in for another blow. This one actually made contact and sent his foe to the ground. Vincent brought himself up to his knees and swiftly tripped X and sent him to the ground giving him time to jump back.

X wasn't happy. He flew himself at Vincent like a mad dog on crack trying to get another hit in. Apparently a teenaged thief failing a stick in an effort to hit him didn't agree with Vincent as his response was more aggressive than his previous responses. After a few blows he sent X back to the hard tile floor smashed on the ground.

X wasn't conscious. Vincent walked over to the sleeping beauty to analyze the situation. He wasn't dead. That was good, very good. Only he has the abilities needed to hack into Titan's Tower so he would need him to get anything done.

X's eyes slowly opened as he squinted to get a good view of the lighting. He made the discovery that he was bound down when he tried to get up. A door opened and out came Vincent in his usual mysterious fashion slowly walking toward his captive. He stood over the bound anti-hero waiting for the inevitable response to his entry.

"Okay, what do you want me to do?" X said.


	20. Chapter 20

Renegade:

Chapter 20

Two men were standing in an office room discussing what they met each other so they can discuss. One of the men was dressed in a suit and tie with his complexion that of a tanned European male. The other, was garbed in a more traditional suit, a ninja suit and though he may seem like a foreboding figure, his presence in that place was not one of aggression. Rather, he was there to barter with the man in manner of speaking, though not in the traditional way. The European skinned man strode toward a coffee pot that lay in the right corner of the room. He lifted the pot with it pointing to the mysterious man he was having a conference with and asked, "Coffee?"

"No thank you." Was the mysterious man's reply, "Now, about this little 'job' for lack of a better word, there has been one question that has plagued my mind; why do you need me when you have their lives already in your hands?"

"It's not about their lives, Mr. Bushido; it's about credibility. If we just kill them now it would look suspicious if they just _disappeared _without a trance and never return. People have already begun speculating that Visor's had something to do with their disappearance."

"But they did."

"Of course they did, but we don't want that to be necessarily public knowledge."

"Villains never do, unless their stupid. Now, are you sure he'll be safe?"

"My guarantee is iron-clad. We have our top medical advisors working with him he will currently be able to live as long as he's with us, but for a cure you would need to fulfill our deed."

"Good. Now where's the first place I need to go?"

"That would be Beast Boy's prison. He currently is being kept at this building so you may 'free' him if you want."

"Why don't you just give me proper leave so I can get him and be on with my life without having to resort to sneaking around this place?"

"Wouldn't look good to the changeling, and it wouldn't look good on us. This is a hush-hush project so we wouldn't want every guard knowing about it."

"I see. Well, can you at least tell me where he is?"

"Cell-block A on the fourth floor, so do we have an agreement?"

Bushido took Vincent's hand.

"Yeah, I'll do your deed."

In Vincent hand Bushido saw what looked like a Titan's communicator.

"You'll need this."

Bushido took the present before the left the room in a casual manner. From there he had to decide how he would get there. Getting to the fourth floor would be easy enough; Vincent's office was across from an elevator. Finding him may be a different story, though "A" was the first letter in the alphabet he knew that cell block "A" didn't necessarily mean the first cell block, and even if it was that elevator could dump him off at Cell Block "Z" for all he knew. He decided to see where the elevator could take him. He walked into the elevator and pressed the '4' button.

Seconds later he arrived at his chosen destination and quickly got out of the well lit elevators and into the shadowy corners and hallways. There were two ways to go, right and left. Bushido looked both ways and seeing that there were no signs to point him toward the Titan he decided to go with left. He made a persistent descent into the hallway walking at an average pace. He figured since the murder was a lower floor they would first lock down that area and work their way up. He passed by several different doors with names of areas on them but no cell blocks until he went to the very end of the hallway.

There at the end was a door with a sign that read in English "Cell Blocks A-D." Bushido decided he was in the right place. There was only one problem; above the door a security camera kept a locked sight on the door and it's surroundings meaning that he would have to analyze the situation. After some examination and a little experimentation he concluded that the camera was too tough to be sliced with a throwing star so he would have to find other means.

The camera had a patrol rang long enough for him to not be able to get near the door but short enough so he couldn't time his assault on the cell blocks without being found out. The hallway had a flaw though; it was lit with light bulbs. After taking down all the lights he cautiously made his way to the door and tries the doorknob.

He got lucky. The person who left their patrol to go down with the other guards must have forgotten to lock the prison doors. After quickly opening up the door he found himself in Cell Block A and after about five tries he finally found Beast Boy.

He had a dazed look on his face as if he was a vegetable (Well you are what you eat). He looked toward the wall and saw a video screen with a swirling hypo-disk like thingy. Bushido slowly began to feel his consciousness slip away from him but before that happened he quickly drew his blade and sliced right though the screen. Aside from a slight feeling of fatigue his consciousness was returned to him.

Sadly this was not true for Beast Boy. His eyes seemed to reflect that same hypnotic swirl; his mouth was ajar letting out enough drool to flood the Nile. He moaned and groaned incomprehensible sounds as Bushido tried to get him awake.

He tried poking him, prodding him, and it even got to the point where he poked him with his knife. Alas, none of these methods proved successful, but his next method accomplished his goal.

"Konichiwa" He said, which meant hello.

Beast Boy began to burst into hysterical laughter. "Dude that sounds like…Japanese! Sweet! A ninja!"

Beast Boy began to examine the stranger poking and prodding him in the sides and after he was satisfied with his new friend being real he began looking at his equipment.

"Dude, is this a sword?"

"I…"

"Awesome, what that?"

"That's…."

"Are these ninja stars?"

"Those are…"

"Wait a second," Beast Boy blinked twice and looked at Bushido with a bewildered look in his eyes. "Who are you?"

"My name's Bushido."

"And why are you in my room?"

"First of all, this isn't your room. Secondly, I'm here to save you."


	21. Chapter 21

Renegade

Chapter 21

Batman was at the mercy of a madman, not that he hasn't been there before, but it was always difficult to survive. Wraith motioned with his blade for him to move inside the room. Batman complied and stepped in the room always conscious of the sword that Wraith had to his throat. He slowly stepped to the corner of the dark room following Wraith's every order. Wraith backed him up until there was no where else to lead him; Batman was his. Or at least he was until light crept into the room.

The door opposite to them opened wide to reveal the face of Ark Magnus who witnessed would have been Batman's execution were it not for his quick reflexes.

Quickly, he reached out his arm and conjured a mass of energy to form around Wraith's arm preventing him from cutting Batman through. Wraith's head was turned away so he didn't notice him enter, but Ark stopped him from cutting Batman's throat, he knew exactly was going on. Wraith tilted his head and turned it until his eyes met with Ark's.

"Renegade." He said to Ark.

"Now, now, did you really think a psionic dampener would hold me back?"

"How did you escape?"

"I would be really stupid to tell you wouldn't I?"

"You are really stupid to challenge me, aren't you?"

Wraith, who had practically forgotten his former prey, launch straight for Ark who had the grace and agility to avoid his sword. Ark bulleted to the side, ricocheted of the wall, and went flying straight toward Wraith, who also had the speed to dodge an attack.

Fortunately, Wraith didn't see the attack coming; so his face once again met Ark's fist sending him flying into a bookcase on the far wall of the small room.

Wraith was angry now, and as bad luck would have it Ark was still recovering and composing himself from his last attack, making him a perfect target. Wraith ran and slashed hitting Ark's chest agitating his wound that was still left from their last battle. Ark returned his strike with some quick punches which Wraith easily blocked. However, the roundhouse kick to his side forced him to the ground. Ark leapt at his fallen enemy and started sending him punches like he was giving out coffee to a room full of business men (that's a lot). Wraith managed to find an opening in his attacks large enough to fit in his own.

He kicked Ark right in the chin, which hurt, a lot. It hurt enough to once again send him flying into a wall, but this time, he was in trouble. Wraith prepared for the final strike. His footsteps were precise. His determination was rock-solid. His—

Suddenly the ghostly figure fell to the ground. He looked franticly wondering what happened to his legs where he found the problem, a Bat-a-rang.

Batman stood in the corner where he originally was and smiled a simple smile.

"Forget someone?"

Wraith quickly got up to meet the Caped Crusader but was struck from behind by Ark. After that moment he was disoriented, disoriented enough for Batman to pick him up and begin his stereotypical interrogation. You know, slamming him against the wall to frighten him and then get the info out.

"Who are you?" Batman demanded.

Wraith bided his time by speaking a prepared speech as he fumbled with his fingers. "A ghost in the night, a slayer of men, and your worst enemy, I am," Wraith took out a knife, which he secretly hid in his pocket, and slashed Batman across the chest forcing him to let Wraith go. Wraith wouldn't leave until he finished his speech. "I am the Wraith." He said as he ran out the door.

Batman looked at the figure identified as the Renegade and began his questioning.

"You're the Renegade?" Asked Batman

"I wish I could say no." Confessed Ark.

"What do you know about the _organization_?"

"Enough to know that if you know what the name: _organization_ means you've obviously done your homework."

"Most of what I know comes from this." Batman took out of his Utility belt: six silver balls, and a familiar red jacket."

"So you've found my databalls, and my jacket." Ark took his beloved jacket and put it on. It was a perfect fit and it seemed somebody had sown it back together since his last battle. Ark looked into the great detective's eyes and saw that he was rather resourceful. He had never mentioned the stolen databalls, as he called them, to anybody except Crossfire. So he was either lucky, or smart to be able to find them. The information they held came from an official whose name neither Ark, nor Crossfire cared to know. All they knew is that they would need to combat their invisible enemy somehow, and revealing them seemed to be the best way.

"But of course now you know that the information is fragmented, almost useless, almost, but it seemed to be enough to track me using my subdermals, and probably Crossfire's as well."

"I understand that you have a connection to the Titans." Batman was still concerned about Robin, fearing for him as a father would his son.

"Yeah, that's true. I went to them for protection, but the _organization_ attacked them and me. Now I don't know where any of them are." Ark still felt guilt over the Titan's situation. It wasn't fair that he brought them into this. But he definitely was going to get them out.

Batman understood the boy's guilt well. Ark's mind was full of "If only's" and "What didn't I's" But that wasn't going to help at this point.

An idea struck the Dark Knight and he began searching through the files he had uploaded from the computer earlier.

"What are you doing?" Ark asked.

"Finding Robin." Batman continued until he found a file dubiously named "Catmix" Which strangely enough held the location of Robin's cell.

"I've got him."

After Batman said those words, the tide began to turn toward the heroes' side.

Raven began her meditation in her distracting room. With Wraith gone to wherever he was it was barely doable, but she had always been the one to never give up. Despite what depressing words she had to say, she always deeply believed everything would turn out right.

She began sending out a signal, like a homing beacon that would draw the attention of any magic users. Even the novices.

Ark heard her distant voice echoing. He needed it to be clearer to be able to tell where she was so he went into a sort of trance. His muscles loosened, his conscious thought drifted until he was unconscious lying on the floor, which came as a shock to Batman. From his perspective, Ark just randomly passed out, but soon enough Ark's eyes opened and he slowly got to his feet. He knew where Raven was now. He just knew. It was like he remembered exactly where to go to get there.

Ark looked into Batman's shocked eyes and made an attempt to explain himself.

"It's Raven. She's sending out a message to anyone who can hear her. I can barely make it out; it's like throwing a rock into a calm stream and I'm standing on the edge of the last ripple. But it's strong enough for me to find her."

Batman was clueless at this point; so he said what he absolutely knew for sure. "That's two Titan's then."

Ark could tell that Batman needed to be clued in. "Umm, maybe I should recap what's happened in the last few days."

"It would help."

Wraith stood with his partner Vincent in a dark room. The room itself was dark enough so that not even the figure of a body could be seen; both of them preferred the dark.

"How is everything proceeding?" Vincent asked.

"Well enough, but I still don't understand how he got out on his own."

"In the end it doesn't matter. All that matters is that things are going according to plan. Are they, Wraith?"

"Other than Batman finding the place a little too quickly and the Renegade's ability to escape from nearly any prison, I would say that things are going exactly as planned."

"Good. We can't know everything, but we know enough."


	22. Chapter 22

Renegade:

Chapter 22

Bushido sat with Beast Boy in his cell explaining the admittedly confusing recent events.

"So, what's going on again?" Beast Boy was understandably confused, to go from hypnotized to thrown in the middle of a story good enough to make a cheap novelette must have been a baffling experience for anybody, but for Beast Boy and his tendency to be _confused_ at certain times, it was down right mind boggling.

"I'll go over it again; you were in a battle, a battle that you lost. The victor's of that battle took you here, to an old feudal castle in Japan." Bushido understood how Beast Boy felt, along with the fact that everything he said went right over the poor boy's head. In a way he reminded Bushido of his younger brother, somebody he was very close to.

"Okay then, if you're here to rescue men, then why aren't we outside yet?" Just then the alarm sounded; it seemed _somebody_ noticed that there was an intruder inside Beast Boy's cell that matched the description of the intruder that had recently entered.

"Good question." Bushido replied.

The young changelings warped into a stegosaurus and used his long, spiked tail to take out the wall to his right. Bushido dashed out the hole in the building with Beast Boy not far behind. The guards stationed on the ground took a special interest in the two boys, an American eagle sighting was rare in Japan, and let loose their weapons upon the unsuspecting boys.

"Yikes!" BB shrieked while bullets whizzed past his head, wings, and every other part of his body. All the flailing bullets around him made it too dangerous to continue flying so he decided to join in Bushido's escape on land in wolf form. The two young men dashed in the shrubbery and miscellaneous plants that grew in the out laying forest until the Ninja and his wolf were both impossible to detect. A faint sound came to BB's keen ears; it sounded something like "prisoner escaped" or something like that to him.

Back at the castle the ground guards were calling in for support and out of the door came ten well armed, well trained, and well built guards. Judging from their physic you could tell that they were of an elite core. They began to march south after the two _criminals_ at an impressive speed, eventually catching up to the two boys.

Beast Boy and his rescuer continued to run faster and faster despite the fact that the sound of bushing leaves behind them was getting louder. Just then, another sound came to their ears, gunfire.

"Ah!" Beast Boy yelped. A bullet barely grazed his right leg, but even such a small wound would keep him from trotting foreword. Bushido, hearing his comrade's cry of pain, ran at the guards and was able to surprise them since they didn't expect for the escapees to turn around.

With the sound of both gunfire and sword strikes three guards lay dead. Bushido turned his attention to the other seven and the other seven turned their attention of Bushido. He quickly dodged bullet after bullet hoping aid would come before one of the guards got lucky.

Luckily, Beast Boy came in and took down two guards before they even noticed him. What happened next was approximately twelve seconds in which BB and Bushi struck down the remaining five, and before anybody else could catch up to them, the two boy's jetted off into freedom.

The two entered a clearing which was offset by a strange looking bush. Bushido walked over to the strange bush, pulled it back, and revealed a moped before Beast Boy's shocked and amazed eyes.

The youngest titan stood there for a moment waiting for the realization to strike him. _A ninja, with a moped. Ninja, moped. Nimojaped…MOPED! _Beast Boy, who came out of shock hugged Bushido until he nearly died of suffocation.

"Dude! You have a moped!" Beast Boy exclaimed in an over-excited voice. He really liked his mysterious friend now.

"Um, yeah, so?" Bushido was confused, as confused as Beast Boy was when he just woke up from his 'coma.'

"Dude, you are like, the **coolest** ninja ever!" Beast Boy again hugged his new friend.

Bushido recalled that his brother's response was very similar, each time he had to rest to catch his breath and get the blood pumping through him again.

"Hop on." Bushido said.

"Where are we going?" Beast Boy asked.

"Oh, you'll see."

The boys arrived at their destination, an old shack that could have been a martial arts academy at one time, but now it was just a dump. To the right of the shack was a modest fountain that was barely more than a birdbath. To the left there was a cherry tree that in its blossom. The cherry tree made it feel beautiful, even though that was not the case for the rest of the house. Bushido walked through the door with Beast Boy trailing behind. Upon entry, the young men saw an elderly man sitting in a rocking chair.

"Hello, uncle." Bushido said with a simple bow.

"Uh, hello, mister, um-" Beast Boy tried.

"Saikoge." Bushido whispered to him

"Hello my nephew, and hello green one." The old man got out of his chair and bowed before them. "What brings your friend here."

"Injustice and Security, he will be staying here for a while."

"And why is that, may I ask?"

"He was taken prisoner by the same men that took my brother."

"You are lucky then, green one. Not many who are taken prisoner live to speak of it."

"Would I be lucky enough to get some food?" Beast Boy piped in.

"Beast Boy-" Bushido whispered to him.

"Of course. You may have whatever you wish."

Beast Boy's tired stomach thanked Saikoge. Beast Boy was a little surprised by Bushido when he said he had a brother; the young titan knew little about the men that showed him such hospitality, and all he thought about was his stomach. He walked into the kitchen, which was the only other room in the house, thinking about food, Saikoge, Bushido…and more food. The old man looked humble, but at the same time strong and wise, like he was some famous man who trained _chosen ones_ until they were ready to fulfill their destiny. Beast Boy blew off the idea thinking to himself that he had watched too many kung-fu movies, but his assessment was not far from the truth.

The kitchen was basically a room full of selves and other miscellaneous places to store food. He opened one of the drawers; and was completely surprised.

"Dude! You have TOFU!" BB shouted.

"Uh, yeah." The mysterious ninja replied.

"Dude. You. Are. The. Coolest. Ninja. Ever." Once again he hugged his new friend but this time he felt something on Bushido that he did not notice before.

"Hey, is that my Titan Communicator?" BB asked.

"Yeah, it is. You can have it if you want." Beast Boy took the communicator out of Bushido's hand just when it started beeping. Beast Boy pressed a button on the communicator that caused the front to slide open revealing a video screen with Cyborg's face on it.

"BB! Is that you!" Cyborg shouted. Beast Boy nodded affirmatively in response.

"Great, I was beginning to thing there was no way out. Do you know how hard it is to program a Titan Communicator from scratch!" It seemed to the boys that Cyborg had had his own troubles.

"Um, no. How hard is it." Beast Boy asked.

"Really, really hard. First you have to a GPS uplink and then I had to connect my newly created communicator to everyone else's, all without getting caught."

"Sounds hard."

"It is," Cyborg said, "Wait, how did you get out?"

"I had a little help."

"Awesome! Is Robin free?"

"No, not Robin. He's a ninja and he's really, really cool!" Beast Boy turned the Communicator to Bushido.

"Ummmm, hi." Bushido said.

"He's awesomely cool! He's got a Moped and he likes tofu and…" Beat Boy went on and on continuing his rant until both Bushido and Cyborg became enraged.

"Yeah, I'm happy that you were about the rescue BB but…are you really that cool?"

"Yes. Yes he is." Beast Boy answered for Bushido.

"Anyway," Bushido interrupted. "You said you had a GPS uplink. Do you think you could send us your GPS coordinates?"

"Yeah sure here you are," Cyborg said, "Oh crap, somebody's coming! I've gotta go!"

The communicator went blank; the two men looked at each other knowing what the had to do, save Cyborg.

"So, when do we leave?" Beast Boy asked.


End file.
